Sparked!
by ProtectobotsFTW
Summary: (REPOSTED DUE TO CO-AUTHOR GOING AWOL) Co-written with Daenerys Starcatcher. Warning for Mpreg, questionable taste, silliness, and crack. Fireflight has a drunken indiscretion. There are consequences.
1. Chapter 1

Ratchet eyed the Aerialbot in front of him critically. He sighed. How the frag does one handle this?

Fireflight looked unrepentant and somewhat confused; he really had no idea why he'd been purging his morning ration for the past few mornings, but frag if he hadn't felt like slag warmed over twice. So he'd been made, by Silverbolt, to go to see Ratchet, something he didn't like on the best of days. Silverbolt was here with him, staring at the walls of medbay, while Ratchet looked like he wanted to hit something for some reason.

He finally spoke, shrugging. Beating around the bush would get him nowhere. "Fireflight, you're sparked up."

"I'm what?" Fireflight squeaked. "I can't be sparked up! I'm careful and besides, you said we couldn't spark each other, we're too similar to be compatible!" He looked at Silverbolt, standing dumbfounded by the wall. "Didn't he say that, Bolt?"

"He's what?" Silverbolt's optics faded somewhat, and he eyed Ratchet as if he'd gone insane. "We can't spark each other, Flight, and just who else have you been with anyway.." Silverbolt trailed off, apparently trying to number Fireflight's probable bed partners.

"Sparked up." Ratchet said flatly. "In the human vernacular, knocked up higher than a kite, preggo, bun in the oven, all that slag. Look here, on the monitor." Two little bitty sparks floated around Fireflight's in a lazy spin. "He's been fragging SOMEBODY, somebody who did a damned good job, it appears." Ratchet looked fairly annoyed at this development.

"But-" Fireflight blinked a few times. "Are those baby sparks?" He felt his own spark surge, an immediate emotional response of awed love- and instant affection- rising up in him- and promptly swamping the gestalt bond. Silverbolt gave him a Look. "They're so tiny!"

"They're not going to stay tiny," Ratchet said.

Silverbolt felt several feelings well up within him, one of which was affection. The next most prevalent one was a desire to strangle Fireflight. The next... "Fireflight. You WILL tell me who you have..." He bit his lip, embarrassed. "Who you have i-interfaced with in the past.." He trailed off, not quite sure how long it took.

"Decacycle." Ratchet supplied, grouchily. "Now I have to gather the fragging sparklet supplies, build frames, all that slag...Fireflight, could you not just use a fragging reproductive block? Really? Would it be so fragging hard?"

Fireflight's lower lip wobbled. "Boooolt, you know everyone I frag, you were there for half of them. And I always use the blocker. Well, except after that party- the one where the twins had that purple high grade? But taht was the once!"

"You drank the purple high grade." Silverbolt slapped his hand over his eyes and shook his head. "Isn't that also the one where you got mad and left?"

Ratchet was still grumbling. "Cybertronium and carrier-grade supplements and...can you at least tell me who was at that party so we can narrow it down? Coder's identity can affect they type of spark you're carrying, especially because it's almost guaranteed to be a grounder/flyer hybrid. Unless you fragged Powerglide." Ratchet laughed at that.

"Slingshot was being an aft." Fireflight kicked one foot idly, staring at the monitor. "So I left, cuz I didn't want to listen to him and Powerglide is an aft and I wouldn't frag him if we were stuck on a desert island together forever which we wouldn't be because we can both fly."

Silverbolt tried very very hard to keep his patience. "Where did you go, Fireflight?" He couldn't act on the images in his head; strangling a jetformer does no good, and he couldn't beat the slag out of him because A. he didn't really want to and B. it might hurt the...oh PRIMUS...sparklings. "You were mad, you were overcharged. Where did you go, and who did you meet up with?"

Fireflight looked down at his feet, then over at the monitor, and squeaked something unintelligable that sounded vaguely like "Portland."

Silverbolt began pacing through medbay. Getting Fireflight to talk was almost impossible... "Portland. Okay. That narrows it down." He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "You had to meet up with some other mech to get yourself...the way you are."

"Uh uh." Fireflight said, not looking up. "Does it really matter?" He turned to ask Ratchet. "They, um... I thought all sparklings from flyer sparks were flyers?"

Silverbolt's optics narrowed. "FireFLIGHT..." he said warningly. Ratchet interrupted. "Certain subtypes are dominant. I taught you all this in basic biology, were you not listening?" Silverbolt just stared at his brother, and moved closer to him.

"Tell me who you interfaced with."

Fireflight kicked his feet again. "Promise you won't be mad at me? And you'll stop being mad at me for getting sparked? It was an accident, Bolt, I swear!"

Silverbolt sighed very loudly. "I am not going to promise that, Flight, but I can try. I am disappointed in you, but I blame whoever took advantage of you while you were overcharged even more. Tell me."

Ratchet added, "I am going to have the afts of those slagging Twins mounted on the walls of my office for giving high grade, likely bootleg high grade, to a youngling."

"Then I'm not telling you." Fireflight glared at Silverbolt. "And he didn't- I liked- um." Fireflight closed his mouth with a snap and crossed his arms before looking at Ratchet and continuing. "And we're not younglings, Ratchet. We fight, we do patrols just like everyone else."

Ratchet glared. "You're doing your twins there a disservice by not letting me, your doctor, know who their coder is. I can't prepare a proper frame, and it's easier for you to be honest than me have to find out through testing. The test is dangerous and could cause damage, even loss, of your sparklings. So out with it." He glared at Silverbolt as if to say, "Way to go, dumbaft."

Silverbolt felt like kicking the wall and he tried again. "Fine. Flight, I won't be mad at you. I'm not promising about him. Who is it? Who could possibly be so bad as to make you act like this? It's not like you were fragging Megatron." Silverbolt was obviously disgusted and frustrated, to be talking like that.

"Fine, I'll tell you." Fireflight said, looking at the monitor again.

Ratchet grumbled something under his breath. Silverbolt counted to ten. Twice.

"Fireflight, please. I need to know."

Fireflight looked down at the ground again. "You really promise not to be mad?"

"Yes, I really promise already!" Silverbolt said acerbically.

Fireflight's voice was very, very soft, and he mantled his wings with embarassment. "There's this little airport outside Portland, and they have all these neat old planes and they don't mind if I come hang out and I ran into him there, and I was upset and kinda overcharged and it just happened."

"Airport. Neat old planes. Surely you weren't fragging a squishie's personal jet?" Ratchet was torn between laughing and wanting to just Gibbs-slap Fireflight. "Okay, out with it."

Silverbolt just waited, arms crossed. This seemed to be going someplace he really was starting to Not Approve Of.

Fireflight's voice was soft and high pitched with embarassment- and a hint of defiance. "Starscream. I fragged Starscream. Just the once."

"YOU DID WHAT?" The phrase was in two voices, simultaneous. Silverbolt froze solid, the words echoing in his processor...which started to screech to a halt.

"Fragged Starscream. And he fragged me. Twice. But just that one time, I mean." Cybertronian faceplates didn't change color with embarassment, but the surface temperature rose, highly visible to anyone's IR sensors. "Maybe it wasn't then?"

"You. Fragged Starscream. And he fragged you. Twice." Ratchet was actually laughing at this. Silverbolt looked absolutely horrified, the fact apparently not having sunk in quite yet. He kept moving his lips, but nothing came out.

"Looks like he nailed you good, Flight. I mean, twins. But you are NOT supposed to be fragging the fragging SIC of the fragging Decepticon Army!" he said, resisting the urge to shake the jet.

"I am going to take him apart. And when he's in a million pieces, I will weld them into a lump of slag and throw them into the ocean, next to the slagging Nemesis, so his fragged-up faction can look upon what happens when you frag with my brothers." a suddenly calm voice said, as Silverbolt stalked out of medbay for parts unknown.

"And that's why I didn't tell- Bolt!" Fireflight slid off the berth and started to follow Bolt, intent on preventing his brother from getting himself slagged, because really, five years and it was still rare that they managed to ground any of the elite seekers, and that was usually as Superion, not in straight one-on-one fights.

"Oh no you don't!" Ratchet grabbed him by the wingtip. "I have more scans to do."

* * *

Silverbolt's expression was more than enough to keep everyone out of his way as he headed to the main comm, one thought in his mind. He was going to kill Starscream. He was going to more than kill Starscream; he was going to obliterate all vestiges of the Seeker from this planet. The voices over the gestalt link were curious, concerned even- but Silverbolt ignored them, clamping down on his end of the bond so as to not give them more information than they needed. When he arrived, everyone looked at him oddly, but he stared Wheeljack, who was manning the comm, down- "Get me the Nemesis. NOW."

"Silverbolt, what are you doing?" Wheeljack asked, although his hands already moved over the control panel as he punched in the codes to hail the Nemesis.

When the connection went through, connecting to a very confused Skywarp, Silverbolt glared lasers at the image of the object of his ire's trinemate. "Get your fragging, slagging, no-good trineleader up ON this comm, immediately. Or I will come down there to get him." He turned to Wheeljack. 'Personal matter."

Wheeljack just paused and stared. He had NEVER seen Silverbolt this angry.

* * *

Ratchet pinched Flight's wing until he stayed there. "If a Seeker coded your twins, then they're going to be Seeker winglets. Seeker coding overrides almost anything else, you know."

Fireflight settled back on the berth reluctantly. "Is that good or bad? So they'll be flyers? Not that there's anything wrong with being a grounder-" he added at Ratchet's look. "But just... I can't imagine not flying." He shrugged. Ratchet scowled at him, hooking up another piece of diagnostic equipment. "You have to build frames for them?"

"I have to build frames for them." Ratchet confirmed. "Suitable ones, and with appropriate specs. Which is why I needed their coder's type, at least. Seeker's not just a frametype, you know. It's spark programming as well. You have a little of that, but not completely." Ratchet began digging out some old, dusty datapads. "Read this. It's about sparkling care. You need to consume more energon as well, and take these supplements." A large bottle of some vile-looking liquid was added to the datapad.

"More energon?" Fireflight asked, making a face and hanging his wings. Purging his morning energon rations was how he'd ended up in the medbay in the first place.

"More. Or I'll siphon it directly into your tank, see if I don't." Ratchet said with a little growl of his engine and a smirk on his faceplates. Fireflight ducked his head and wished Bolt hadn't left.

* * *

"Silverbolt." It hadn't been quick, but it also hadn't taken the Decepticon Air Commander that long to come to the comm once Skywarp actually bothered to comm him with the encrypted databurst that Silverbolt sent him. The seeker's handsome faceplates were set into their usual smirk, and he posed languidly in front of the camera. "To what do I owe this...'pleasure'?"

Silverbolt's intakes were harsh. "You and I need to...talk. In person. Alone." His optics flashed azure fire, and his expression was absolutely furious. Silverbolt didn't want the entire crew to know of Fireflight's...condition, so he didn't come right out with it on open comm, because he knew that Wheeljack was watching, and Jazz was just over there, tinkering with what looked like his sound system. Right next to him was Sideswipe. And if Sideswipe knew anything, the entire fragging Ark knew it.

* * *

Ratchet was not prepared to take no for an answer, and indeed went to the dispenser and retrieved a cube right then and there. He produced a small vial of crystals and dropped one in, where it immediately dissolved, and added two drops of the evil-looking stuff. He handed Flight the vial. "Those'll keep you from the purge. No more than two per day. The other stuff is the supplement. Now drink it."

Fireflight looked around for an escape route. None appeared. "But Ratchet-" Even the smell of the energon was making him faintly nauseous, even though his fuel gauge was pinging him insistently.

"But nothing." Ratchet said, tapping one toe idly on the floor. Fireflight sighed internally and lifted the cube, taking a tentative sip. His tank roiled, but the energon stayed down.

"The entire cube." Ratchet said.

* * *

"And just why would I want to meet with you, Autoaft? What could you possibly have to say that I would be interested in?" Starscream said, crossing his arms and glaring at the camera. "Go suck exhaust. Or practice maneuvers, Primus knows your wing could use it. Either way, I'm not wasting my time."

"YOU SPARKED MY BROTHER, DUMBAFT!" Silverbolt never quite realized how loud his voice could be, and this time, it quite possibly could have been heard in the Decepticon base WITHOUT benefit of comm signal.

Everything else on the command deck came to an abrupt, screeching halt. Jazz's sound system died with a weak 'thunk'. Sideswipe just stared at Silverbolt. And Wheeljack just smiled, slowly. "One of you Aerials' are gonna have a sparklet?" The inventor looked happy, of all things. Silverbolt facepalmed heavily.

Starscream, it should be noted, was capable of looking just as dumbfounded as Ratchet at this revalation, and his answering shriek was just as loud. "I did WHAT?"

Silverbolt took a deep breath, talking more or less through clenched denta. "You. Fireflight. Hillsborogh Airport. About a decacycle ago?"

Jazz's hands went still over his sound system and with a glance at Sideswipe, he stood up, edging towards the door and trying not to attact any attention, Sideswipe following in his wake.

"Fragged my brother. Fireflight. Who is in medbay because he's carrying twin sparklets. And he named you as the coder." Silverbolt crossed his arms over his chest, and of looks could kill, Starscream would be deactivated and grey.

Over the comm, from somewhere behind Starscream, an excited 'whoop!" noise could be heard. "Screamer, you're gonna be a coder! isn't that cuuuuute!"

There was a thump from the other end of the comm, and a muffled 'ouch!' Starscream shifted. "I did no such thing. That's impossible."

Silverbolt glared. "Are you calling my brother- my pregnant brother- a liar?"

"Seekerlets, Screamer! They might be Seekerlets!" Came the muffled voice from behind Starscream, and another, louder, clank.

"Owww! Fragger!" The other voice became silent.

Starscream smirked and said casually, "From everything I've heard, Fireflight probably wouldn't know who sparked him, he's been with almost everybot in the faction..."

Silverbolt just stared. "Are you...did you just...Fireflight's not..."

Starscream nodded. "I did. My words to you are fragging prove it." His wings flicked high up on his back.

Silverbolt fumed. Somehow this had never entered his calculations. "Prove it how?"

"Fireflight is sparked?" Wheeljack asked behind him.

"Tests, a crystal ball, I don't care. But I'm not claiming your gestaltmate's brats." Starscream's arrogant glare cut through the screen.

"But...how could you?" Silverbolt felt angry, sure, but he couldn't contemplate someone so cold-sparked as to-to...

"You fragging spawn of Unicron, that's my brother!"

Starscream smirked. "And, I can assure you- those are not my bitlets. Maybe if you kept better track of where your shareware had been you wouldn't be in this dilemma. Nemesis out." Starscream reached out and cut the connection on the screen.

* * *

Fireflight had been released from medbay with a stern warning to go and rest until his tank settled back down and to read those datapads as soon as possible, and was making his way back to the Aerialbots' hanger when Air Raid nearly ran him down.

"Flight, what the slag is going on? You're putting mushy stuff in the bond, and Silverbolt is MAD!"

Fireflight saw his brother, and something inside him bent. "Raid, I'm gonna have sparklings! Two of 'em! And Bolt's mad cuz I got sparked up, and probably because of...other things." He wasn't sure he was up to admitting what-or rather, who, he'd done right now.

* * *

Silverbolt looked for something to throw at the screen, but the closest thing was Wheeljack, and one didn't throw one's effective creator at the vidscreen when one was angry. He stalked out of the command area, toward the hangar. He didn't know what he was going to do. This was unreal.

Wheeljack shook his head. His jetlings, all grown up.

* * *

By the time Silverbolt got back to the hangar, Fireflight had made himself comfortable on the battered, scaled up sofa that the Aerialbots had liberated from the rec room and installed in front of their own vidscreen and was sprawled half in Air Raid's lap as they read through a datapad together.

"What were you THINKING?" He asked Fireflight again.

Fireflight's face fell, and his optics got shinier. "Bolt, you promised you wouldn't be mad."

Silverbolt sat down on the floor next to the couch; he'd never found it particularly comfortable, anyway- and just sighed deeply. "Flight, I'm...not exactly mad at you. I'm mad at the situation. I'm REALLY mad because the- the mech-" and he spat that as if it were something horrible- "- the mech you said sparked you is denying responsibility."

"That I said sparked me?" Fireflight glared. "Bolt, I'm not lying. Besides, what does it matter? They're my sparklets, and we'll love them and it'll all be fine."

Silverbolt glares. "I didn't say you lied. I don't exactly want to advertise who you were messing around with, if you get my meaning."

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the Nemesis...

"You're gonna have sparklings with that little Aerialbot?" Skywarp crowed. "Can't you keep it in your plating, Screamer?"

"Shut up, Skywarp. I mean it," Starscream was fragged off, really fragged off. He really wasn't sure if it was him, after all, Fireflight had basically thrown himself at Starscream. Who's to say he didn't do that to everybot every time he got overcharged?

Winglets, though...been a long time since he'd seen little Seekers learning to fly...

He shook his head, irritated. "Not a word. Any of you." He glared at everyone on the Nemesis command deck. "If I find out that any of you said as mich as a single word about this, I will personally make sure you regret it." He stalked off the bridge.

* * *

"What if they are yours?" Starscream's optics snapped to Thundercracker who was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his cockpit. He gave his trinemate a heated glare. Thundercracker merely stared at him levely. "I'm being serious."

"They're not." Starscream said confidently. "You think I, Starscream, fragged that stupid piece of shareware Autobot?"

* * *

Fireflight glared back. "I don't care. They're my bitlets, no matter who their coder is."

What might have turned into a n impending argument was interrupted by a chime from the comm console. "Silverbolt? I believe we need to talk." Prowl's calm voice said.

Silverbolt heard Prowl's voice on the comm and cursed inwardly. "On my way." He glared at Fireflight. "Stay here. And...and rest, okay?" He was worried about Fireflight, for many different reasons. It was Silverbolt's job to worry about his teammates; he was their commander. And Prowl was undoubtedly going to want details about this, details Silverbolt didn't really want to go into. He headed toward Prowl's offices anyway, because to not answer is Death and Insubordination.

* * *

"Yes. I think you did." Thundercracker said calmly, staring at his trineleader. "And if you did, and those are your sparklets, you're a worse fragger than anybody thinks if you just abandon that jet to have them."

Starscream snorted. "Even if I did, what am I supposed to do about it? Bring him here? He's an AUTOBOT. And a ship underwater is no place to raise seekerlings. If I did have any sparklings, they'd be raised properly, in Vos- and that won't happen until *I* rule the Decepticons!"

Skywarp, who up to this point had been remaining quiet and sulking, piped up. "Would be nice to have Winglets around..." He muttered sullenly. "And c'mon TC, it could have been worse. It could have been a grounder!"

"You two are fragging INSANE. I did not spark up Fireflight, we are not raising winglets in this Pit of an underwater tin can, and...ARGH!" Starscream hit the wall, hard.

* * *

Silverbolt took several moments to calm himself before pinging Prowl's office door, which was never open, not like some others'. "Sir? I'm here as requested." He mentally ran through the facts, and knew that Prowl was probably going to want some kind of punishment for fraternizing with the enemy...but didn't people occasionally do things they regretted while overcharged?

Then again, this was Prowl. Prowl had likely never been overcharged a day in his function.

Fireflight was doomed, Silverbolt was sure of it.

"Thank you for your prompt response." Prowl said. "I need to discuss the latest set of patrol schedules you sent me."

Silverbolt boggled, and then facepalmed. He'd sent the schedules last night. They'd need revising, he was sure. Would Fireflight have to be pulled from active duty? He had no idea. "Er, yes sir, about those- I need to make some further changes."

Prowl tilted his head just slightly. "What changes might those be? Deviation from schedules requires explanation."

* * *

Air Raid was reading through the datapad with Fireflight when Slingshot came into the hangar, a sour frown on his face. "What are you two looking at?" he said, scowling. He leaned over Flight's shoulder to have a look, and before Air Raid could turn the padd over, he got a good look. "Sparkling development? Why in the frag would you be reading about some stupid slag like that?"

Fireflight looked both guilty and happy. "I'm having twins?" he said.

Slingshot's face froze, the harrier turning to look at his brother... "Please tell me that was a joke."

Fireflight beamed up at him. "Nope! We're gonna have bitlets!"

Slingshot stared. "How hard did you run into the mountain this time?"

Fireflight rolled his optics. "I didn't. Ask Bolt. Or Ratchet. Little baby jets! Eeee! They'll be so cute!"

* * *

Silverbolt hemmed and hawed. "I'm not sure, exactly. Um. Fireflight hasn't been feeling well, so he went to see Ratchet this morning. I um, just came from there, actually."

Prowl nodded. "So his patrol schedules will need to be revised for the next...how long? An orn, possibly two? What did Ratchet say about his prognosis?" Prowl made a few notes on his datapad, rearranging things to optimal performance.

* * *

"Baby jets. You have got to be slagging kidding me, Flight." Slingshot looked like he wanted to deck his brother and perhaps knock him back into reality.

"Noooope! Two little sparks, two little winglets! Ratchet said they'll be fliers, the Seeker coding..." Fireflight closed his mouth with a snap. He said too much.

"Seeker coding...?" Slingshot said flatly, visor flashing. "What Seeker coding?"

Air Raid whistled. "Don't tell me you were plugged by a Seeker?

Fireflight smiled nervously. "I won't?"

* * *

"Um, I'm not sure. I need to talk to Ratchet before I can revise the schedule." Silverbolt temporized.

"Well, let's see if he's available right now." Prowl punched the button on the comm. "I need these schedules so that I can coordinate them with our ground patrols. If I need to accommodate Fireflight being out for more than a cycle or two, we'll need to re-route them to accommodate Blades and Powerglide flying the nearer sections. Ah, There we are." There was a click as the comm connected.

"What do you want? I'm busy down here!" Ratchet's voice said crankily. "Do you have ANY idea how difficult it's going to be to source enough two frames-worth of Cybertronium?"

Prowl stopped. His optics cycled a few times, and he asked Ratchet with just a slight hesitation, "Why do you need two frames' worth of Cybertronium, Ratchet?" Prowl ran the possibilities through his mind, and only a single logical conclusion came up. "I was...unaware that anyone's reproductive protocols were active. Is there another purpose for this that I am perhaps not aware of?"

Ratchet growled through the comm. "No, Prowl, there isn't. There are indeed mechs on the Ark whose reproductive protocols are active, because we didn't have the original base code installed when Wheeljack and I put 'em together, and apparently their sparks didn't come with it, either. The Aerialbots. And the Protectobots, too, for that matter, but this isn't about them. Confidentiality states that I can't tell you which, but as you can see, I'm working on sparkling frames. And I am busy." With that, Ratchet cuts the connection.

Prowl, for his part, was running calculations through his processor; the variables added up into one solution..plus, he's no fool. "Fireflight will have to be taken off of the duty roster for the time being. That is, if my calculations are accurate, and it is he who is...expecting."

Silverbolt only nods, not really sure how to explain the rest of it. He knows he should tell, should let Prowl know how Flight got that way, rather than let him find out some other way. If he didn't way something, somebody else would. And then Flight would be in MORE trouble. "Sir...that's not all of it. It's the coder of Flight's bitlets."

"What about him?" Prowl asked.

"I...it's...Fireflight got sparked by Starscream."

Silverbolt had always expected, somehow, that Prowl's legendary ability to be glitched by illogical information was a hoax. After all, it would be a significant weakness for a military commander, and honestly, the only people he knew who claimed to have seen it were Lamborghinis.

As it turned out, their description was highly accurate.

* * *

"WHEN did you get plugged by a seeker?" Slingshot asked. "And why?"

Fireflight kicked his feet out on the couch and mumbled, "If you hadn't been such an aft I'd never have went to the ariport and..and Starscream was there, and he was being nice to me after YOU WERE SUCH AN AFT, and..." Fireflight looked miserable, and Air Raid gave him a hug, glaring at Slingshot. Then what Flight said hit his processor. "You fragged STARSCREAM?"

"Oh for the love of Primus!" Fireflight yelled at the top of his voice. "Yes, I fragged Starscream. And he fragged me. Twice. D'you need to know positions too?" He stood up, pulling out of Air Raid's grasp, only to see Skydive standing at the door to the hangar, a very shocked expression on his face.

* * *

"Sir?" Silverbolt waved his hand in front of Prowl's face. Nothing. "Sir, are you..." Still nothing. He thumbed the comm, automatically calling the last person. Ratchet's voice came screeching over the speakers. "It had better be important, or so help me..."

"Um. Ratchet, Prowl just...blanked."

A banging noise came over the comm. After a moment, Ratchet's voice. I'm sending First Aid to unglitch him." Another, different clank, probably a thrown tool. "Are you done making more ridiculous work for me yet, or can I expect Slingshot to show up with his wings welded to his aft or something shortly?"

"Um. Yes. I-I mean, no, no he won't. Thank you, Ratchet." Silverbolt cut the comm and waited for First Aid to arrive. This was getting worse and worse.

* * *

"Well, Screamer?" Thundercracker just stared, in that way he had. "Are you at least willing to consider the possibility that you stuck it where you shouldn't have?" TC usually wasn't so crude, not like Skywarp, but he figured it might get Starscream's attention in a way that nothing else would. Seekers didn't leave their sparklings. Ever.

"Shut the frag up. I am trying to think here." Starscream spat nastily.

"Shoulda done that before you did that Aerial, Screamer." Skywarp said as he entered the room, having heard the conversation.

"I said shut up." Starscream glared.


	2. Chapter 2

Things settled down after a few days. Sideswipe did, indeed, tell the whole Ark, and after a cycle or so of awkward questions in the rec room, things were more or less back to normal. Fireflight's shifts had been changed to monitor duty, and although rumors were still flying about exactly who his sparklings' coder was, no one was saying anything to him about it directly. Yet.

Fireflight pecked desultorily at the board in front of him, wingtips drooping. This was a lot less fun that he'd thought, being released from patrol duty- and he hadn't thought it would be much fun to begin with. He could feel his brothers' joy in flight through the gestalt bond, and it was starting to get to him. He looked up, and the only other person in the room was Perceptor, of all mechs. Better him than nothing, though...

"Perceptor, can I ask you something?" Fireflight said in a slightly wistful tone.

The science mech turned toward Fireflight, one optic ridge raised. "You may, Fireflight."

"How do you /do/ this every day?" Fireflight said, after a long minute of trying to decide how to word things. "It's so /small/ in here, and there's nothing to look at. I don't know why I can't fly patrols, Ratchet says my spark's healthy." He sighed sadly.

"Because you...ummm..." Perceptor didn't like hurting other mechs' feelings, but Fireflight had a record for running into things... "Your balance in flight may possibly be adversely affected by your condition, and partols are inherently dangerous due to the prospect of enemy encounter." Perceptor said, rather hurriedly. "As for how I 'do this every day', well, I prefer quiet places to think."

Right after the words left his mouth he mentally kicked himself; he didn't want Fireflight to think that Perceptor wanted him to shut up...

"Oh." Fireflight said, face falling. "I just miss flying." He sighed again and went back to staring at his monitor.

* * *

"The fact remains, that we are going to /have/ to find more space for the Aerials." Grapple groused.

"There's no room in their quarters for one additional mech, let alone two. And will they appreciate it? No, of course not. You'd think topside quarters find themselves."

Hoist shrugged. "I agree, but we have to put them /somewhere/...luckily, the little ones will stay that way for awhile, so the extra space needed will not be a lot, not at first." He looked over the plans in his hand and 'hmmmmmed' loudly. "An alteration here, a tuck there...Aerial nursery. Oh, slag, it has to have a view of the sky, does it not?"

* * *

Perceptor felt sorry for Fireflight. "Are you tired? If you are, you can get off-shift early." He had never been around a sparked mech and thus only had theoretical knowledge of the feelings involved.

Fireflight shrugged. "No- not tired, just sort of..." He paused, tilting his head. "Sort of itchy."

"Itchy? Perhaps you should speak with Ratchet. I don't believe that is a normal part of spark division. I can summon Blaster to complete your shift, if you will report to the medbay."

Fireflight shook his head again. "It's not bad itchy, just funny-feeling. I'll go after my shift. I don't want Bolt to have to change my schedule again."

"If you insist, Fireflight. I only wish for you and your progeny to be safe and healthy." Perceptor immediately dove back into his datapad with every indication of pleasure. Fireflight himself checked his internal chrono and sighed deeply; time for more of that nasty slag Ratchet was making him drink. And he still /itched/. He unsubspaced a cube and added the stuff, his lip curling at the aroma of the supplement.

"This stuff tastes like slag." he remarked sourly, before literally holding his olfactory ridge shut and downing it, his optics squinched tight.

* * *

On the Nemesis, sparkling gifts were mysteriously appearing on Starscream's console on the Nemesis' bridge. When consulted about the culprit, Soundwave simply shrugged and said that the video showed no one accessing the bridge during Starscream's off shifts who was not authorized to be there.

Starscream just glared at Soundwave. "/Somebody's/ putting this slag in my chair." This retort was met by an impassive red visor that barely flashed, certainly not in amusement because Soundwave did not possess so base a thing as a sense of humor.

"Problem: not mine."

The shriek of outrage was heard even in the Decepticon rec room, where a certain black and violet Seeker crowed in laughter.

* * *

"He /really/ fragged a seeker? I can't believe your stupid brother fragged a seeker?" Powerglide crowed. Skydive gave another mental sigh and sent a second mail to Silverbolt requesting never to be assigned to patrol with Powerglide again.

"What Fireflight did or didn't do isn't any of your business." Skydive said levelly. "Turn 24 degrees to starboard, commencing in .833 breems."

"But you'd still think that he'd shot Starscream down using his gun instead of his spi-"

Skydive darted past Powerglide, barely clipping the other jet with his wing. It hurt, but the spin Powerglide got thrown into was eminently worth it. /Nobody/ trashed his brother, least of all Powerglide.

"Pardon me." Skydive said calmly through the comm. "Variable in pressure threw me off. If you'd course-corrected as I told you, you would not have been in danger."

"You piece of- I'm reporting you!" Powerglide hissed.

Skydive would have rolled his optics if he'd been in root mode. "Go right ahead. I've filed a report with Silverbolt. Do you have any damage that needs to be reported to Ratchet?" Skydive commed back solicitously.

* * *

Fireflight finished out his shift without any other incidents. "See you tomorrow, Perceptor." He said, unable to muster up any enthusiasm for the prospect.

"Good afternoon, Fireflight!" Perceptor said, still engrossed in something on the other monitor. "Oh, ah, I took the liberty of comming Ratchet for you. He would like you to report to medbay when your shift is over."

Fireflight wondered if Air Raid could come up with anything good to do to Perceptor, who obviously had too much free time. He sighed and nodded, heading for the medbay.

When Fireflight arrived in medbay, Ratchet was ready for him. He jerked his thumb over to the berth, where a small monitor awaited. "Up, Flight. We're gonna have a look at what's going on in there. Also, Perceptor told me you've been feeling itchy for some reason. You're a first-time carrier, so you need to tell me any odd symptoms that crop up." Ratchet stood there until Fireflight obediently crawled up onto the berth, and then attached the small connector to Fireflight's chest plating. He turned the monitor on and waited for a clear signal.

* * *

"So what are you gonna name 'em?" Skywarp asked Starscream when he walked into their shared quarters.

"Name-Skywarp, you are an idiot. One, I am naming no one anything. Two, sparklings know their own names when they boot up for the first ti-...why am I even telling you this? Get the slag out of here and do something useful!" Starscream was more irritable than normal, and he had no real clue why. The pile of chewable squeaky toys on his berth may have had something to do with this, as well as the small packet of information on squishy birth control that some "kind" soul had found and thoughtfully provided him. It included tiny foil packets of something...when Starscream opened one, with a pair of tweezers, all it contained was a slick latex rubber thing. What the frag was that used for?

* * *

Fireflight craned his neck to look at the monitor, which was really facing Ratchet.

"Hold still." Ratchet ordered. "Everything looks fine. Did you read those datapads I gave you?"

Fireflight nodded. "Uh huh. I'm really gonna lay eggs?" He asked.

Ratchet wanted to facepalm. "Not like human birds, but...yes, sort of. Your spark has split. Right now, the sparklets' sparks are still forming in orbit around your own, but once their own energy stabilizes in a quartex or so, your nanytes will build each of them a spark casing – the 'shell'- around each of them, one for each sparkling. Once that finishes, the casings are ready to be extracted and installed in protoforms." Ratchet paused to study the readings on the monitor. "The sparklets are doing just fine, by the way, except for an odd variance in their frequency...which is something we really can't do slag about, at this stage."

* * *

A ping at Silverbolt's comm made him sit a lot straighter and immediately open the door. He neatly stacked the datapads in front of him, more out of nervousness than anything else, and cleared his intakes, looking up at his leader with as nonchalant an expression as he could manage.

"Yes, Prime, sir?"

Optimus Prime walked fully into the room, and said solemnly, "We need to talk about your team, and about Fireflight in particular. Can you merge into Superion while he is carrying?"

Silverbolt shook his head. "I don't know, sir. This is as new- well, newer, really- to us as it is to you. Ratchet or Wheeljack would be the ones to ask. Ratchet restricted Fireflight to light duty, though."

Optimus nodded. "Of course. I would never ask a carrier to endanger their sparklets in a fight under any circumstances. I was simply curious."

"Superion can function with only one arm." Silverbolt felt compelled to offer. "Defensor's done it a few times when First Aid was needed elsewhere during a battle. We can practice it."

Prime nodded, mollified with that answer. He brought up the second reason he'd come here.

"Silverbolt, are you sure that Fireflight consented to this...liason?" A delicate question, to be sure, but Optimus needed to know. There were considerations here that needed to be taken into account, and all information was required.

* * *

"Why can't you do anything about it right now, Ratchet? Is it gonna hurt them? Have you started their protoforms?" Fireflight held himself around the device gently; he didn't want his winglets to be harmed by some weird variance in..in whatever Ratchet said!

Ratchet sighed; he really didn't want to mention this part..."Generally speaking, when a mech, or femme, is sparked up, both the creator and the coder will be on hand as they develop and grow. This isn't the case, so their spark signatures are out of sync because..." Ratchet sighed.

"Because why?"

"Because they want their coder, all right? And I am not allowing Starscream within a thousand mechanomiles of you if I can help it, so don't even think about it!"

Fireflight frowned. He didn't really want Starscream around, either, but if the sparklets wanted it... "Is it going to hurt them?"

Ratchet shook his head. "No, I don't think it will, but if you start feeling odd around your spark, I need you to tell me. Or I swear by Primus I will strap you to this berth and only let you out tied to Silverbolt's back to fly." Ratchet knew well about sky-hunger; and the last thing they needed was a sky-addled pregnant jet. "Speaking of flying, you're due to go out this evening, aren't you? Who's taking you?"

* * *

Silverbolt shook his head. "I don't know. I can't imagine Fireflight ... well, you know- with Starscream, of all mecha. He was pretty overcharged when he left. But well... I know he's a slagging bastard of a Decepticon, sir. There's not very much I'd put past him. But - have there ever been any incidents with him before? Incidents where he... forced someone?" Silverbolt's faceplates were burning, and he caught himself clenching his fist just as a crack appeared on the plastic edge of his datapad.

Prime considered this. "No. Not that I am aware of. What does Fireflight say about it? Has he shown any signs of trauma?" Prime didn't need to mention that things might not be so great if it were consensual, either- being overcharged was a mitigating factor, but fraternizing with the enemy, particularly the opposing side's SIC, was not exactly something that could be swept under the rug.

Silverbolt sighed. "I don't know, Prime. I mean-" Silverbolt shook his head again. "From what he said, it was consensual, but I just... I can't imagine he'd /do/ that. But at the same time, well... It's Fireflight. He doesn't mean to break rules, he just doesn't remember half the time."

* * *

"I'm going up with Skyfire. Everyone else's busy because they're covering my patrols, but his stall speed's too low for regular patrol routes and Silverbolt said it was going to be hard to work him into the schedule." Fireflight looked mildly guilty.

Ratchet nodded. "Good. Fuel before you go and top up when you get back. Your energon levels aren't quite what I want to see."

Fireflight groaned. "More energon?"

"More energon." Ratchet confirmed. "You're consuming for three, you know. And those two are active little suckers. If you don't have enough, you'll go critical and shut down when you least expect it. The consequences of that can range from extremely embarrassing to fatal. Now go on, get the slag out of my medbay so I can get some actual work done."

Fireflight hurried out to find Skyfire, hoping he could start his flight early. It had been two cycles since he'd been in the air; maybe that was what was making him itch! He whispered to his bitlets on the way: "We're gonna go flying. That'll be fun. When you guys get out of your eggs, we'll really go flying then." Sunstreaker passed Fireflight in the halls as he talked to his little ones and only quirked an optic ridge.

* * *

"Patrol tonight, Screamer." Skywarp smirked. "You'll have to put down the toys and come on."

Starscream gave Skywarp a positively filthy look and threw a squeaky seekerling at his trinemate.

"Won't you all just frag off and deactivate."

"Primus, who lubed in your energon today?"

"That is revolting, Skywarp."

"You're being an even bigger glitch than normal-"

Skywarp's words were cut off by the wing that hit him in the face as Starscream stalked out of the quarters.

Starscream jabbed the button on the access tower with more force than was truly necessary. He normally loathed patrols, but anything was better than another shift of sitting on the bridge and listening to people snicker.

* * *

Skyfire was more than willing to start their scheduled flight a little bit early, although he was less than thrilled as Fireflight flitted around him as they flew, the smaller jet unable to resist a few loops out of the sheer joy of wind over his wings. "Careful, Fireflight. I'm not sure who will offline me faster if you manage to crash yourself, your brothers or Ratchet."

Fireflight huffed over the comm. "I'm FINE, Skyfire. Ratchet said it was okay to fly!"

Skyfire answered after a pause. "Maybe so, but how about we fly right side up in a straight line today. We can go look at something, if you want"

"Alright." Fireflight was too glad to be in the air to be disagreeable, and really, Skyfire was always fun to fly with. "Let's go west and see if there's any whales off the coast today?"

All right, Fireflight." Skyfire was happy to humor this little request if it kept Flight upright and fairly near him. He extended his sensors outward as a matter of reflex, because he was fairly certain that Fireflight wouldn't be doing so.

Fireflight zoomed forward, just a bit. Not too fast, because then Skyfire would say Something and perhaps cut their time out short. The ocean was fast approaching, or, rather, they were approaching it.

* * *

Starscream transformed and exited the tower with all due haste, glad for once that he wasn't tied down by trine or partners on this flight. He'd been...irritable, lately, even for him. Starscream didn't really know why, either. It didn't really cross his mind much until his sensors informed him of two Autobot signatures dead ahead, off the coast, one of which he was extremely familiar with. The other...fraggit.

Skyfire noticed Starscream at approximately the same time that Starscream noticed them, and he commed Fireflight immediately. "Turn around. We must go."

"Whhhyyyy?" Fireflight wailed over the comm. "We just got here and there's dolphins playing over there, see?"

"Trust me, Fireflight, I would not cut your flight short if I did not have a compelling reason." Skyfire moved to physically herd the much smaller jet toward land. "Now!" Skyfire ordered.

FIreflight sulked, but obeyed, banking into a lazy turn. "What's that on the sca- oh." His energy field shifted. Despite their... encounter at the airport almost a quartex ago, Fireflight had no desire to run into Starscream again any time soon, even outside of a battle. "Should we call for backup?" He asked uncertainly.

"No need." Skyfire said calmly. "He knows better." Skyfire's only worry was the real fact that Starscream could outfly them both, unless Skyfire took Fireflight straight up, extra-atmospheric- which the smaller jet was capable of, but inexperienced with. That was the only place where Skyfire could outfly Starscream, but Skyfire had another advantage here. Size mattered.

* * *

Starscream saw Fireflight and something within him felt...odd. Very, very odd. He threw it off, annoyed with this entire process, and increased speed despite Skyfire's presence.

*That pacifist won't do a slagging thing.* he thought to himself with an inner smirk.

"Stay away, Starscream, or I will be forced to do something you will not like." Skyfire warned. He didn't like or much approve of violence, this was true, but he was intelligent enough to realize that sometimes it was the ony thing that a bully like Starscream would listen to.

"Frag off, shuttlecraft. I only want to talk to him." Where those words came from, Starscream had no idea, but he did know this- the closer he got the Fireflight, the calmer he felt. Then it hit him. Son of a glitched-up half-addled two-cred pleasurebot. Coder anxienty.

Those were his. And now Starscream felt something else that he hid desperately: a touch of guilt. This was more than he'd felt in several hundred vorns, but it was there.

Fireflight dropped back slightly, coasting on Skyfire's slipstream and sending a wordless ping with a glyph requesting command clarification to Skyfire, nervously. This wasn't like flying with his brothers, there was no sense of connection and Skyfire's EM field was clamped down so tightly around him that Fireflight didn't dare try to skim through it. "I don't want to talk to you!" He sent over the open comm, ignoring the way his spark seemed to almost settle, a little ache he hadn't quite been aware of fading away.

* * *

"Overcharged or not - if Fireflight did indeed interface with the Decepticon SIC consensually, Silverbolt, there will be consequences." Optimus Prime's optics were sad. "I will be ordering Prowl to investigate the situation further."

Silverbolt nodded, feeling slightly sick in his tanks. "I...I know. But...can you be merciful on him? It's Fireflight. He doesn't mean any harm- he just doesn't think. And he wasn't sharing secrets, I think I'd know it if he did!" Just what did they do to people who fragged the enemy, anyway, Silverbolt wondered? He was worried for his brother, moreso than usual. He wished he'd come back from his flight-time with Skyfire so they could talk about it.

* * *

"I'm not going to hurt you, you oversized glitchling." Starscream hissed. "I just..." He just what? Starscream almost stopped, hovering in midair. Why in the frag did he want to talk to the jet anyway? Especially with Skyfire hovering over them like a guardian who wanted to step on them.

"FALL BACK, Decepticon." Skyfire said. He prepared himself to make the wide turn to effectively drag Flight off-course enough to dump him into his hold, then get the hell out of there.

"It's Decepticon now? Come now, Skyfire, we know each other better than that." The old sarcasm was back in full force, tinged with more than a little charm. Starscream edged closer, feeling more at ease with every mechanometer he got nearer the Aerialbot. "Fireflight. I wanted to know something."

"What do you want, Screamer?" Fireflight blustered, trying to cover his unease, edging marginally closer to Skyfire. "I was overcharged!"

"I want..." Starscream couldn't believe he was saying this, but something in his coding was screeching at him more surely than he knew his designation.

"I want to know if..if the little one is all right." His tone on the comm was soft.

Skyfire would have blinked, had he eyes to do so. He kept watch on the Seeker, ready to interpose his bulk in between Starscream and Fireflight if necessary.

A long pause, while Fireflight tried to figure out what to do. Eventually, he decided there was no harm in it. "Little ones." He corrected. "Ratchet says everything is normal."

* * *

Prowl contemplated the datapad in the center of his desk.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Prowl indeed did possess a real spark and fully-active set of emotional protocols. While he never allowed his feelings to impact his duty, it was entirely untruthful to say that he did occasionally find himself dreading certain parts of his required function.

The datapad contained Prime's order to investigate the circumstances of Fireflight's recent... circumstances. Neither option was good. Fraternization or sparkrape. Primus.

* * *

"Ones? Plural?" Starscream edged a bit closer, watching Skyfire as if he expected the shuttle to eat him. "I...good. Good." Then he wondered what the frag he thought he was doing, getting close to this damned Aerial and worse, Skyfire off the coastline where Primus and everybody could see. This would certainly not help all the slag onboard if anyone heard of this. Still...

There was something within his spark that wanted to know, and felt for that little jet. He couldn't show it, though. Weakness was terminal in the Decepticon army. So Starscream did the only thing he knew how to do.

After one last look at Fireflight he banked sharply around and took off at top speed in the opposite direction.

The ache in his chest did not get any better.

* * *

Prowl figured, with this written order, Ratchet might be able to fill in some of the blanks. He went to medbay to talk to the medic, datapad in hand. As he walked in, Ratchet was berating Sunstreaker for a severed arm, which Sunstreaker was currently holding in his undamaged hand.

"You fragging moron, how many times have I told you that you cannot fly, and jumping off Sideswipe's back while you practice your slagging jet judo is going to get you worse than deactivated. *THUNK* A new dent, this one on Sunstreaker's helm, was formed from the wrench that Ratchet hit him with.

"What do you want?" Ratchet growled at Prowl.

"While this appears to be a less than opportune time, I need to speak with you regarding a possible criminal offense at your earliest convenience." Prowl replied. Show no fear. Rumor said Ratchet could smell it.

Ratchet's engine growled again. "AID! Get over here and start prepping that arm for reinstallation. Scan the struts and if they're intact, start re-stringing the new tension cables and call me when you're done with that."

"No problem," The Protectobot hurried over from the other side of the medical bay to pick up a tool on the table, leaning over Sunstreaker with a gentle pat to the frontliner's good shoulder.

"You-" Ratchet turned to look at Prowl. "In my office."

Prowl merely raised an optic ridge and escorted himself into office, making sure that the door was closed firmly behind the two. Once Ratchet got settled, he consulted the datapad in front of him.

"I have here an order from Optimus Prime requesting any and all information concerning the possible...possible assault on one Fireflight, member of the Aerialbots and one of your patients." Prowl tapped his fingertips on the desk. "This conversation will be officially recorded for evidentiary purposes."

Ratchet leaned forward in his chair and pulled a pair of cubes of high grade from his desk drawer, offering one to Prowl and peeling off the seal on the other. "Fireflight. What a slagging mess."

Prowl declined the cube with a polite shake of his head. "How so? What can you tell me about the situation."

"Fireflight presented approximately one orn ago with symptoms not uncommon to first time carriers, initially diagnosed as a fuel processing glitch. The ... evidence showed up on a routine physical scan for changes from his standard results. He's carrying- twins- and his spark has completed the initial phase of division, meaning the sparkmerge that initiated the split took place approximately a decacycle previously. He admitted to multiple merges during a single encounter with a Decepticon Seeker during that time frame, after leaving the Ark while intoxicated."

"Do you have any reason to believe that the merges were non-consensual?" Prowl asked.

Ratchet took a deep drink from his cube, considering this very carefully. He knew the answer could mean many things, none of which were ideal, but he had to tell the truth.

"No. I do not. There was no trauma to casing or plating, no trauma to the spark itself. It is also incredibly difficult to spark a single sparkling from a forced merge, let alone two. The energy required is gathered through mutual overload, and while it is certainly possible to force that sort of thing...it is incredibly easier to accomplish if both participants were willing." Ratchet looked into Prowl's cool blue optics.

"Additionally, and I have been practicing for a VERY long time, I have seen only three Seekers ever perpetrate the crime of rape, and they were all glitched in ways I don't care to discuss. Their core programming includes a strong imperative to protect the young, in addition to an aversion to forced carrying, as their frametypes are particularly suited to it. Fireflight may have been overcharged, but he was willing enough."

* * *

Fireflight watched the Seeker fly away with a queer ache in his spark, and he felt that itch start up again, the itch where he definitely couldn't scratch. He desperately wanted comfort, but Skyfire felt so far away, even while Fireflight was right next to him. Skyfire's EM field was wrapped tight around him, with only a little feeling leaking out...and that feeling was sadness. Fireflight felt even more miserable.

"We can stay out a little longer, if you want." Skyfire said, after a few minutes of silence. "We'll just go the other direction."

Fireflight was quiet for a few minutes in return. "I think I want to go back to the Ark now, if you don't mind." His spark itched, and he wanted nothing so much as to be curled up in the middle of his gestalt brothers.

"We can go back." Skyfire said, alone in his thoughts. Some high grade didn't sound so bad after all this... He turned, making sure that Starscream wasn't coming back, and escorted Fireflight back to the Ark, keeping his emotions firmly in check.

Starscream headed out, somewhere, anywhere. He wasn't quite sure where he was headed, but he knew he needed to fly. Needed to put that little red and white jet out of his processor, him and his...his and Starscream's...

"Frag it all." Starscream yelled over the ocean. He fired his null rays at some weird organic thing he saw, watching the charge dance across the water and the creature sink far beneath the waves.

* * *

Prowl sighed. That the young flyer hadn't been forced was a relief, but that left the fraternization charge. "Is there any reason to expect any sort of complications for him? Other than light duty, will there be any special precautions that need to be taken?"

"He's having two instead of one, and this is his first carrying, so it could be rough on him." Ratchet admitted. "He needs additional rations, and his needs will only increase as his term progresses. The sparks will soon begin to form their casings- eggs, as he calls them- and that might cause a bit of pain, and then there's the problem with creator/coder energy. Usually, a bonded pair that sparks will interface more to provide energy, but this can't happen here. I don't know what he's going to do for that, but I imagine he'll take it up with his teammates."

"Is he still able to form Superion?" Prowl asked. "Not that we would take him off of light duty-" He hastened to add, before the medic could explode. "For my own information."

Ratchet shook his head. "He can, but he probably shouldn't. When they combine, our combiners basically are participating in a sustained spark merge. They're essentially parts of the same spark, in a lot of ways - a bit more like spark split twins than a more usual bond, which is why we're not hip deep in gestalt sparkles already. When they merge, the energy level goes up, but they're all resonating tot he same frequency, so you don't get the variable oscillation you need in order for fission to begin. That much energy could be damaging to the newsparks. Regular merging with one or two partners should be fine, but Superion is going to have to do without an arm until Fireflight's sparklets are fully encased and removed."

* * *

It wasn't an unusual greeting from Fireflight to find himself wrapped tightly in a hug. Silverbolt petted his brother's nosecone and looked down at him. "Did you have a good flight with Skyfire?"

Fireflight shook his head, face pressed against Silverbolt's plating.

"We ran into Starscream." Skyfire had followed Fireflight through the door into the Aerialbots' hanger so quietly that Silverbolt hadn't heard him come in. "We need to report to Prime. You should probably hear this too."

Silverbolt nodded, then, and took Fireflight's hand, keeping physical contact as well as the bond wide open to his brother.

Skyfire sighed. "I don't know if this is going to be an issue or not." he said as he pinged Prime on his personal comm.

Prime answered fairly quickly. "Skyfire. Is something amiss?"

"It's Fireflight. And I guess it's Starscream too." Skyfire said on the comm, wincing inwardly just as he always did whenever he had to say that name. To Skyfire, it hadn't been that long at all...

"Come to my offices, then, and bring Fireflight with you."

"Understood. Silverbolt is coming as well. Skyfire out."

* * *

Prowl nodded and made a few notations on his datapad. "Is there anything else that you think I should know, Ratchet?" he said as he stood to leave.

"No, Prowl, except that your stellar cycles' maintenance check is due in less than a decaorn, and if you try and duck out of it, I swear by Primus and his little children that I will physically drag your aft into this medbay by your doorwings." Ratchet was not kidding in the least. "And be easy on the youngling. We all do stupid slag when we get overcharged."

Prowl sighed. "It's not that easy, Ratchet. Rules and regulations exist for a reason, and if they are not followed, then they have no reason to exist. This rule is an important one, and Fireflight, despite his young chronological age, is a full-sparked adult warrior who is improtant to the Autobot cause, both as himself /and/ as a member of the Aerialbot gestalt. The possibility exists that Fireflight, while in a diminished state, told Starscream things that are classified information, or allowed him access to his databanks, which contain similar classified information. Starscream could have used that chance to gain information required to build an aerial gestalt for the Decepticon faction. He already has done so once; I would not put it past him to try it again. We cannot risk that."

He turns to leave. "I will take what you have said under advisement, but I must make my report to Optimus Prime now. He will decide the best course of action."


	3. Chapter 3

"Skyfire, Silverbolt, Fireflight." Optimus Prime sat down behind his desk as the three flyers walked into his office. "Prowl is on his way as well. Please, sit down."

The three fliers found places to sit, Skyfire somewhat awkwardly as the largest chair in the room was already taken by Prime. Silverbolt looked at his brother and sighed.

"Skyfire tells me that he and Fireflight ran across Starscream while they were out on Fireflight's air-time. I'd better let Skyfire tell you, as I wasn't there." He reached for Fireflight's hand, offering comfort through the touch as well as through their gestal bond.

Skyfire began to make his report. "We flew toward the ocean, as Fireflight expressed a desire to observe the ocean life, a request I saw no issue with. Shortly after we arrived, about a breem, Starscream's signal pinged my proximity sensors, and I directed Fireflight to follow me out of the area. As you are aware, Starscream's air speed is considerably higher than my own, so he managed to catch up to us fairly quickly."

Fireflight interrupted, still a bit confused about the entire encounter. "But Skyfire, he wasn't...hostile at all. He just wanted to /know/."

Silverbolt frowned. Fireflight was almost defending the seeker. His confusion must have spilled through the gestalt bond, because Fireflight squeezed his hand before continuing.

"I didn't want to talk to him, but he didn't attack us, and he could have, that's all." Fireflight said.

Optimus Prime frowned behind his mask and then sighed. "Prowl will be here momentarily. I don't believe you need to tell this twice."

It was rather less than a moment, as the door pinged and then opened almost before Optimus finished speaking. Prowl stepped in, followed by Ratchet carrying a cube of the supplement-laden energon he had been forcing on Fireflight at every turn which he plunked down on Optimus's desk in front of where Fireflight sat.

"/More/?!" Fireflight said miserably, the thought of drinking that stuff making his tank roil.

"More. Or would you prefer it if I shoved a tube in your intake and did it that way?" Ratchet's tone wasn't cruel; it was just matter-of-fact.

"Least then I wouldn't have to taste it." Fireflight retorted, looking at the cube as if it were deadly poison-tainted slag laced with cosmic rust.

"/Enough/." Silverbolt said, honestly just tired of the arguing.

Prowl raised an optic ridge and sat in a chair near Prime, his doorwings twitching slightly. He held the datapad that contained Ratchet's oral report, combined with his own written notes. "I have what you requested, Prime." he said. He handed the pad over and sat very still, watching the mechs in front of him.

Fireflight sipped at his energon and yes, it tasted just as bad as it had last time, and likely would taste again.

Skyfire waited until everyone re-settled before addressing the room. "May I continue?"

Optimus nodded. "Please, Skyfire. What did Starscream do after intercepting you?"

"He asked if Fireflight's sparklets were alright. After learning that they were, he left." Skyfire said.

"That's extraordinarily unusual behavior for Starscream," Prowl said. "As his former partner, do you have any especial insights into what might be affecting his behavior?"

Skyfire shook his head slightly. "Not specifically- although seeker protocols regarding carriers are exceptionally strong, and Starscream is no exception to that."

Prowl made a staticky noise of disbelief. "Starscream and his trine were directly responsible for the massacre of the last sparkling center on Cybertron shortly before the war forced us to abandon Cybertron."

Skyfire stopped. "That's a lie. There is no way he'd-" Skyfire shut his mouth with an audible click, realizing that calling your superior officer a liar is probably not the best idea in the universe.

Silverbolt sat quietly, listening to all this. This was well above his paygrade, and the atrocities that had happened early in the war were not something that anyone ever willingly discussed in earshot of the Aerialbots or Protectobots. Fireflight's optics widened. "He did /what/ now?"

Ratchet made a rude noise. "Prowl, that report is unsubstantiated. There were almost no survivors, and none who could identify the perpetrators."

"Regardless." Optimus's deep voice broke into the impending argument. "I believe we can all agree that Starscream's /current/ behavior is out of character for him."

Ratchet shook his head. "It would be, Optimus, if we were only talking about Starscream's own behavior patterns. But from what they're saying, it sounds like Fireflight's condition may have triggered Starscream's own coder protocols. That won't affect his behavior in general- only when it comes to direct interactions with the carrier of his newsparks. It's important information, but there's not much we can do about it other than tighten security."

Silverbolt's spark twists inside his chest. "Would he try to come after Fireflight? Take him away with him?" he asked Ratchet, almost desperately. The thought of Flight stuck in the Nemesis with that...that...with Starscream was more than he cared to contemplate.

Prowl tilted his head. "If what Ratchet says is true, then there is a 45.8% probability over the duration of Fireflight's carrying period that he may do just that. Since Fireflight's sparklings' protoforms are being built here, and they probably do not have sparkling protoforms on the Nemesis, this could be detrimental to both carrier and offspring."

"I won't go with him, Bolt, I promise. He /scares/ me!" Fireflight looked rather worried at this talk of taking and carriers and prognoses.

/Not enough that it kept you from fragging him,/ Silverbolt thought uncharitably. Fireflight must have caught an echo of it through the bond, because he gave Silverbolt a hurt look.

"Clearly, this is an additional matter that we'll need to explore and plan for in more detail." Optimus Prime's vorns of experience in conducting meetings containing Jazz, Prowl, and Ratchet served him well to keep this one on track. "For now, I believe we should continue on as we initially planned until more information is gathered. Prowl, do you have anything to add?"

Prowl nodded. "Indeed I have, Prime. I have finished conducting my investigation into the original incident that lead us to this.. imbroglio- and am ready to make my recommendation."

Fireflight huddled in on himself a bit more- he was gonna be in even more trouble. He looked at Silverbolt and found some comfort there, but it was distant for the moment- his brother was steeling himself to hear Fireflight's punishment, whatever it might be.

Prowl began his report. "The charge here is fraternization with the enemy. Fireflight attended a function in the rec room a decacycle ago, where he consumed illegally processed high grade in quantities large enough to overcharge him. An argument between Fireflight and Slingshot ensued, whereupon Fireflight left the Ark, eventually arriving at Hillsborough Airport outside of Portland. While at this airport, he met up with the Decepticon SIC Starscream, where they interfaced, including a spark merge or merges. The results of such are that Fireflight is carrying twin sparklings. The medical facts and personal reports indicate that Fireflight, while considerably overcharged, fully consented to interfacing with Starscream.

I will consider that to be a mitigating factor, but not exculpatory. My finding is that the charge of fraternization has been proven to my satisfaction, and I recommend confinement as a punishment, effective at the conclusion of this hearing."

"If you think that stressing a carrying mech- an unbonded carrying mech, and a flyer at that- with confinement is in /any/ way medically acceptable, I'm going to reformat you myself." Ratchet growled.

Prowl shook his head. "I see no reason why the sentence could not be delayed until after the sparklets are extracted. The facts of the matter speak for themselves; Fireflight knowingly and willfully fraternized with not just an enemy but with an enemy officer and merged, potentially revealing secrets which may have endangered all of the lives of every Autobot on the planet."

Fireflight made a soft noise of distress and looked down, hunching his wings slightly. Silverbolt released his hand, patting him comfortingly on the leg.

"What's...what's gonna happen to me then? Are you gonna take my eggs away from me, sir?" Fireflight's optics were wide and scared.

Silverbolt gripped Fireflight's hand, his other hand reaching to pet Flight's wings gently. "No, he's not." Crystal blue optics rested on Prowl's frame, Silverbolt ready to defend against that at almost any cost. "It wasn't all his fault, yes, he should have known better, but-"

"No one will take your sparklets away, Fireflight." Optimus Prime said. "But I am very disappointed in you, and I hope that you understand what a serious offense this is." He sighed heavily and looked at Ratchet. "I know that the stress associated with sky hunger is particularly acute with carrying flyers. Will confinement during his off-shifts adversely affect the development of his sparklets?"

Ratchet shook his head. "Not as long as he receives sufficient flying time as long as his systems are up to it. I'm concerned about the effects of our brig on his stress levels, though. It's not designed to be conducive to relaxation and past experience with Decepticon prisoners there - and Slingshot- have shown that it appears to feel particularly confining for flyers. That's the last thing he needs."

Prime nodded at that. "Is there an alternate location? Would confinement in say, the isolation ward of the medical bay be sufficient? Confinement to quarters is difficult due to the fact that it also unduly puts a burden on Fireflight's gestalt, who are blameless in this situation."

Ratchet stopped for a moment, then nodded his assent. "I could place him in one of the isolation rooms. It would be more comfortable than a cell in the brig, but would still be punishment." He glared daggers through Prowl, daring him to say a /word/.

Silverbolt spoke up. "He will...you can't separate us, sir, especially not now!" He'd felt the wave of fear at the idea of confinement /anywhere/ from Fireflight, and knew that he needed his brothers, especially now.

"I understand, sir. I won't do it again. I promise. I'm never touching high grade again!" Fireflight wailed.

"I should hope not. You shouldn't be drinking in the first place." Ratchet said acerbically.

"You will be able to visit with your gestalt with supervision, as Ratchet determines is appropriate. Optimus said. "I believe that two orns of confinment when not on his assigned shifts will be sufficient. In addition, Firflight, you are banned from the company of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker- or anyone else who has provided you with high grade in the past- until I judge that you can behave as the adult you and your brothers have always been treated as."

Prowl's expression was still quietly thunderous, but he nodded as well in agreement. "Very well, Prime."

Fireflight looked hard at his feet. One of them was smudged with something interestingly green. Now was not the time to be contemplating his plating, though- Prime was talking. He looked up and nodded, the energon he'd drank churning in his tank despite the anti-purge medicine Ratchet had put in it. "Wh-when do I report?" Fireflight asked, suddenly desperately aware of how far away his brothers other than Silverbolt were.

Silverbolt waited for the answer, too, because then he'd know if he should comm the others or not. Fireflight's worry stretched far across the bond, mixing with Silverbolt's own, turning their intertwined fields into a puddle of NeedGestaltHugs.

Ratchet exchanged a warning look with Prime over the seated Aerialbot's head, followed by a significant glance at Silverbolt.

"Two hours." Prime said. "Silverbolt, you and Fireflight are dismissed. Fireflight, you are to report to Ratchet at shift change, but your time until then is your own."

"Thank you, sir." Silverbolt said, nudging Fireflight with an elbow until he added a murmured thanks as well before making good his escape."

After two Aerialbots had left, Ratchet glared at Optimus Prime. "As glad as I am not to be treating stress-related complications in an underaged carrying airframe- yet, anyway- You are /entirely/ too soft on him."

Prowl nodded in heartfelt agreement.

* * *

Silverbolt led Fireflight down to their hangar, comming the others with an 'urgent' stamped onto the repeated message. Air Raid was already on his way, just ahead in the corridor. He saw his two brothers and waited for them, all walking in a tight bunch until they reached the hangar doors.

Silngshot was inside, his face twisted into an annoyed frown. "What is it, Silverbolt? I was in the middle of something important, and 'Dive's out on patrol, but he's coming straight back.

"Fireflight has to report to the medbay in two hours." Silverbolt says. "And he needs us with him in the meantime."

"Medbay? Why?" Air Raid said as the door to their quarters slid open.

"Ratchet wouldn't let them confine me to the brig." Fireflight said, sinking down on the sofa and wrapping his arms around himself. Silverbolt sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close.

Slingshot couldn't resist. "You're going to get locked up? Hah!" Two pairs of optics locked onto Slingshot and he actually shrank back a little, shaking his head. "Okay, okay. Sorry. Slag. Bolt, I didn't mean it, don't /look/ at me like that!" Air Raid reached over and whapped him in the back of the head for good measure.

Silverbolt clenched his denta and counted to one hundred.

He'd just finished the mental calming exercise when Skydive came whirling in, concern evident on his face and in his end of the gestalt link. He knew a bit more than the others did, because they'd told him some through the bond, and he moved up on Fireflight, wrapping his arms around his brother tightly.

"It won't be so bad in medbay, Flight."

"And just think of all the new words you'll learn!" Slingshot added.

Fireflight shivered. "I don't wanna be all by myself! Ratchet said they were going to put me in one of the isolation rooms!"

Air Raid came over and sat down on the floor so he could put his arms over Fireflight's lap, leaning up against Silverbolt's legs. "It'll be okay, Flighty. How long is it for?"

Flight's lower lip quivered just a little bit as he leaned back on the battered but comfortable scaled-up sofa in the hangar, looking at Raid. "Two orn. But I get my duty shifts out, and to fly when Ratchet says I can." He offered up a tremulous smile.

Skydive grinned at that, settling next to Fireflight to pet at his wings. "That's good. What are you going to name them?"

"Ratchet says that they know their names when they online for the first time, after their eggs go into the protoforms and they start to color up." Fireflight said promptly, quite serious about his eggs.

"I don't know why everyone's making such a big deal about stupid Decepticon sparklings." Slingshot crossed his arms and scowled. "And I can't believe you called me down here for this."

"Slingshot," Silverbolt said warningly.

"Fireflight /always/ gets away with breaking the rules because he's STUPID, and SPECIAL, and you like him best. Well, I'm sory, but I'm /glad/ he's getting in trouble for the stupid slag he's done for once!" Slingshot shouted.

"SLINGSHOT. That is /enough/!" Sometimes Silverbolt was convinced he was a sparklingsitter, and not the leader of a fully adult gestalt in a civil war that had lasted for millions of years.

Air Raid just hit Slingshot again, harder this time.

"He broke the rules, this is true." Skydive said. "But he's still our brother, /YOUR/ brother, and YOU need to quit being such an aft, Slings!"

"They are NOT Decepticon sparkles! They're mine, and I'm an Autobot, so that means they are too!" Fireflight looked as if he were two inches from losing it, his hands clenched into fists and trembling.

Silverbolt finally rolled his optics and shouted. "/Knock it off/, you guys! Slingshot, you /will/ apologize to Fireflight or I swear, by Primus, that you'll be scrubbing washracks instead of overflying the 'Con spacebridge for the next decaorn! Raid, /stop hitting him/. Fireflight, calm /down/. We know they're your sparklings-"

"I'm callin' 'em sparkles." Flight interrupted defiantly.

"Your sparkles, whatever...and not Decepticons regardless of who their coder is. Now we are going to have some quality, /relaxing/ time, if I have to knock you all into recharge to do it!" Silverbolt felt better, after all that...

Fireflight nodded and cuddled closer to Silverbolt. Skydive sat down on Fireflight's other side, rubbing his wings comfortingly and Air Raid crawled up to lay across all of their laps. After a few minutes- and an enormous put-upon sigh- Slingshot joined them. Fireflight's nervous, unhappy EM field skirled and twisted over all of them, slowing and stabilizing as it brushed over and pressed up against his brothers'.

Ratchet waved Fireflight on into one of the small private rooms at the back of the medbay, most of his attention focused on the section of a replacement arm that was lying on the table in front of him. "Go on in there and get settled, and I'll be in to check on you when I'm done here.

Flight looked into the room as if were the worst possible place ever, the Pit and the humans' hell and all of that rolled into one. The room was /small/, for one.

"Um, Ratchet? It's awfully little in there." he said softly, not wanting to anger the medic. The effects of the hugs and togetherness were still with him, but he was still awfully afraid. He'd never been locked up before! Slings had, but he was different...

Ratchet groaned. "Don't tell me you're claustrophobic." Fireflight shrugged. "Look, just go in and sit on the berth. I'll come check on you in five breems, and if it's too bad, we'll move you to isolation one. I wanted to keep that open in case I needed it, it's the only treatment room big enough for both twins if I end up with both of them in here more than just the night after a battle."

Fireflight's wings drooped, but he nodded and marched himself into the room, climbing onto the berth- the only other peice of furniture in the room was an uncomfortable looking stool in one corner- and flopped over on his stomach, offlining his optics.

–

Starscream kicked the squeaky seeker that he'd thrown at Skywarp across the room, where it hit the wall with a dull, sick-sounding 'squiih' noise. He stared at it, digusted with himself and with the entire situation. Why had he gotten close to the fragging shuttle and to /Fireflight/ again? He knew he'd felt...better...while he was close, but Starscream figured that he should be above such base actions related to archaic programming.

Thundercracker came into their quarters, giving the obviously angry Starscream a wide berth. He flopped down onto his on berth, glancing at his trineleader.

"What got into /you/?"

Starscream snapped, "That is /none/ of your concern." He looked onto his own berth, but it was covered in sparkling gifts...Maybe he ought to give those to-

Starscream knocked himself in the helm with one fist, /hard/, to get that thought right out of his processor. He would give nothing. Even if they were his. And doing okay. That thought alone soothed him slightly, and he cursed his programming for the fortieth time this breem.

"STARSCREAM!" Megatron's harsh voice ordered over the comm. "Report to the bridge at once!"

Starscream hissed angrily and stomped out of his wuqarters to report. It didn't due to annoy Megatron in /that/ mood.

Megatron stood in the center of the bridge, staring at holographic display on a console in front of him. Soundwave hovered silently off his left shoulder.

"Starscream. About time! I order you to take your wing, the Coneheads, and the Combaticons, and attack this power plant! Bring me back the energy produced there!"

Starscream snorted. "Yes, oh /glorious/ leader. Is there anything else?" More sarcastic words threatened to fall from his lips, but he banished them. He fgured that he needed to be in mostly one piece for the raid, especially if his command consisted of Combaticons and the fragging Coneheads.

"Watch your tone, glitch. Just take them and /do not fail me again/. I expect you to return, with the energon, within the cycle." Megatron said, glaring at his second.

"And how, exactly, are we to carry this back? In our own hands? Might Megatron, surely you can spare a transport for this purpose, or else we may be /unable/ to bring back what you require." Starscream knew damned well that they could manage it, provided that they utilized their altmodes. He was just feeling contrary.

Megatron sighed and then glared. "I suppose you've forgotten that Blast Off is capable of doing as you need? For someone who continually asserts that they are a more capable leader than I, you have a failing memory." Megatron sneered at Starscream's suddenly embarrassed expression.

Starscream left the bridge without a word, comming the others in a nasty tone to meet him at the tower's exit immediately.

* * *

"Onslaught, you and your team will be in charge of loading the energon. The rest of us will keep the Autobots away from the air." Starscream ordered. Onslaught glared, but nodded. As the tower opened its doors at the top, Blast Off transformed to allow his teammates to board, and the two seeker trines headed east towards the power plant.

–

The alarm going off outside in medbay woke Fireflight from an uneasy recharge. Ratchet had left his comm enabled after exacting a promise that he wasn't to use it to 'chat', and his brothers' voices raced across the link as they scrambled to get out of the Ark and respond to the alarm.

Fireflight felt the urge to ask what was going on, even though he knew. That was the battle alarm, only sounded when the 'Cons were doing something they shouldn't. He looked longingly at the door, and his wings twitched of their own accord.

Ratchet came in, handing Fireflight his first ration of the day. He could tell that Flight was agitated by the set of his wings and the look in his optics. "They will be fine, Fireflight. But you must remain here." His tone was sympathetic but firm.

* * *

Starscream was already annoyed with the Coneheads. This was not unusual. "Secure the perimiter, Dirge, Ramjet! Thrust, overfly your trinemates to ensure nothing gets through. Onslaught, your team needs to /get in there/ and for Primus' sake, Vortex, don't waste time on the squishies! We don't have TIME for that slag! Skywarp, you're lookout. I need your visual of these coordinates, relayed to me. Thundercracker, you are with me. We're following the fragging Combaticons. Starscream out." He expected them to follow his directives. They had damned well better.

"Going!" Skywarp shouted into the comm, disappearing with a VOIP! sound, and Thundercracker fell into position off his starboard wing without bothering to send more than a ping of acknowlegement.

They followed Blast Off into a shallow dive as he banked sharply to land with a concrete-shattering crunch in the parking area in front of the power plant. Swindle and Brawl dashed out of his alt mode, crashing through the glass entry-way into the building itself and disappearing from Starscream's view, Vortex sauntering after them. Onslaught remained outside, on guard for the inevitable response from  
the Autobots.

* * *

The Autobots scrambled to action, having already been told that the ones raiding were both trines and the Combaticons. Silverbolt gathered his brothers, munis Fireflight, and explained, "We may have to combine here. Yes, without Flight. So we'll be short an arm as Superion. We have practiced this, and hopefully we won't have to. When you get a visual on the Combaticons, take out Swindle if you can, because I seriously doubt that they have much experience combining without all memebers available. Swindle is the weak point. Exploit it."

The Twins were readying themselves, Sideswipe making sure his jetpack was secure and Sunstreaker basically glaring at anything that moved. They, next to the Aerials, were the best defense the 'Bots had against the Seekers. They were joined by Jazz and Bumblebee. Eight mechs. That should be enough. Skyfire was on standby for emergency transport. Hoist and Perceptor were riding along with Skyfire as ground support, and Jazz's Ops team was on stand by in case there were more Cons attacking than the initial alarm reported.

"We'll be back soon." Silverbolt commed to Fireflight as they took off in a roar of jet engines from the flat road in front of the Ark, the ground-bound force (and Slingshot) having already departed.

Fireflight didn't comm back, his promise to leave it alone except in emergencies ringing in his audios.

This sucked. This sucked more than just about anything else, including the time that he'd gotten feathers stuck in his turbines.

* * *

Starscream sighed. Everything was going according to plan, so far. No sign of Autobrat scouts, no interruptions. The few humans at this place had stood aside without an fight, though most times, they did- no one really wanted to tangle with something four times their size and twice as mean. They were locked in a conference room while the Combaticons gathered the energy.

/Starscream, we have company!/ Skywarp commed.

/Fraggit/. He should have known.

/Gather the Coneheads and intercept. Don't allow them to get close! I'm sending Thundercracker to your coordinates as additional backup. Don't screw this up!/

/Chill out, Screamer!/ Warp replied. /Or are you afraid your babymama's gonna get his aft handed to him by Ramjet again?/ Skywarp's snicker was cut off as he closed the comm connection.

"Can't you load that any faster?" Starscream screeched at Onslaught. Onslaught revved his engines at Starscream.

"My team is working as fast as they can. Keep the slagging Autobots off us and we'll do our part."

/Frag yourself, Skywarp. Frag yourself HARD./ Starscream advised, cutting the comm. He glared at the working Combaticons with a sneer on his face, but Skywarp's comment had struck something inside him.

What if Fireflight /was/ out there, and got shot out of the sky? What would happen?

* * *

Silverbolt led four-fifths of his team near the plant, and caught sight of the Seekers in the sky. His spark briefly flared in anger, and he noted that none of them was Starscream. Too bad. He had a blast with that fragger's name on it, and he intended to deliver.

/All right, Aerialbots. Take 'em out! Skyfire, do you have the ground support?/

/Ah'm on the way, don't /worry/ so much, Silverbolt. We're goin' in./ Jazz advised them.

Vortex exited the plant and rose into the sky in his altform, preparing to help the Seekers drive off the Autobots as best he could. He figured that it'd be more fun than standing there, watching Onslaught and Swindle load up Blast Off.

/Vortex, get back to your post!/ Onslaught ordered as the first volley of laserfire from the Autobots' weapons splashed over Blast Off's plating.

/You guys have it down there, I belong in the air./ Voretx resolved to ignore any further comms from his commander unless strictly necessary, rising into the sky to fire upon Air Raid, who dipped low along with Skydive to catch Blast Off in a crossfire tactic designed to disable his propulsion systems. Vortex would have frowned, but he simply locked on and fired, scoring Air Raid's left wing with a dark line of laser fire.

Ramjet and Thrust had began a tandem flight, circling around Silverbolt himself in an attempt to get him lower to the ground. They were lining themselves up for Ramjet's signature move, but Silverbolt would have none of it, keeping his form as straight as possible, with Slingshot firing off his port side along with spounting the most creative curses he'd heard in a very long time.

Dirge was already on the ground, his right wing wrenched out of position, a very triumphant looking Sunstreaker slamming his fist into Dirge's face more times than was strictly necessary. Sideswipe, for his part, was actually atop the plant, waiting for Skywarp to screw up and swoop low enough to be caught.

Jazz burst into the building, his blaster raised. Bumbleebee slid in behind him, off his flank, in a defensive posture. He spied Starscream and a wry smile touched his lips.

"Safer in here than out. Screamer. Silverbolt wants your aft on a silver platter. May as well surrender, or else I /might/ let 'im have ya." Jazz just smiled.

"Frag off, Autoscum." Starscream fired his null ray, which Jazz had anticipated- he dodged out of the way and the blast hit a wall, burning a hole into it.

"Thought that was more your thing, Scraemer," Jazz said. "And really, I know your right servo gets tired of you, but you hadda go messin' with /Fireflight/ o' all mechs?" He fired off a shot, which Starscream dodged by slinking around one of the support columns. "C'mon, surrender and I'll even make sure his brothers don't get hold of you."

* * *

"And STAY DOWN THERE!" Air Raid yelled as Ramjet arced downward, trailing smoke from his port engine and Sideswipe jumped free of the damaged decepticon jet.

Starcsream screeched, annoyed with the turn of conversation. "I won't be seeing them today, and if you don't get the slag out of here, you'll be waking up in our brig, at the tender mercies of Vortex. He'd /love/ you, I'm sure." Starscream fired again, picking up the corner of a table to throw it in the mech's path, blocking one route of escape.

He forgot that Bumblebee was nearby, though, and he felt the blast almost before it hit him. His systems shuddered and fell offline one by one, the laser disrupting his mental processes and knocking him completely unconscious.

* * *

Ramjet whimpered on the ground in response to Air Raid's sneering little cry, and Sideswipe scrambled back onto the building just as Vortex fired his glue gun, hitting Raid with in his air intakes. It began to clog things up quite nicely, and Air Raid cursed loudly, comming Silverbolt. /I'm out for now, Bolt, if I fly I'll overheat! damn Vortex nailed me with GLUE, of all things./

Silverbolt sighed- there would be no forming Superion now, not with Air Raid out as well. Onslaught was hurrying below him, closing off Blast Off's reception ports and his holds, preparing to leave. Swindle glared up at Silverbolt and pulled out a largeish weapon, firing and nearlly hitting the Concorde with a blast of violet light that hurt just to look at. Then the smaller mech and his gestaltmates hurried inside Blast Off, who was immediately surrounded by Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Thrust- the remaining fliers. Starscream was nowhere to be found, nor was Jazz or Bee.

The Seekers unleashed heavy covering fire, Skywarp strafing along the borders with a precision that Silverbolt had doubted the flighty jet even had. Blast Off managed to get itno the sky, and Skyfire had already landed...so...he was gone, gone with whatever they'd come from.

The Autobots had failed this one.

Jazz commed Silverbolt. /I got a present for you, Silverbolt. I'll bring it out./

What the frag could Jazz be giving him?

* * *

Fireflight was pacing, and had been since the alarm was turned off after the mission team rolled out. His head snapped around when the door slid open.

"Everyone's on their way back. Your brothers are fine," Ratchet said. "But I need the infirmary, so I'm releasing you, temporarily, to go straight to your quarters and wait there for your brothers. You can recharge there tonight and report here after your shift tomorrow."

Fireflight blinked in confusion.

"What are you waiting for?" Ratchet said crossly. "Go on, get out of here."

"I thought I had to stay here, Ratchet... Why do you want me to leave?" Blue eyes search Ratchet's face for any clue, any indication that something was wrong. "Did somebody...somebody die?" He looked vaguely ill at that thought.

"No, Flight, not that I know of. Now get out of here before I change my mind." Ratchet pointed at the door.

Fireflight opened and closed his mouth, and then nodded, heading for the doorway. The door to the medbay slid open with a soft hiss- bringing Fireflight face to face with Skyfire- who stood holding a unconscious seeker in his arms.


	4. Chapter 4

Warning for intragestalt smutty bits

* * *

Fireflight was shocked into stiffness at exactly who was in Skyfire's arms, and something near his spark /lurched/ at the sight. His hand reached out even as his entire mind and body shrank back.

"Get him out of here! Fireflight, to the hangar /NOW/." Ratchet yelled, shoving the little flier roughly out of medbay while he pulled Skyfire and Starscream in.

* * *

Skyfire lay the unconscious Seeker down on a berth in the isolation room, and Ratchet quickly secured Starscream to it before getting out his diagnostic materials. At Skyfire's Look, he shrugged. "I am /not/ having fragging /Starscream/ in my medbay unrestrained. Speaking of, can you remove those weapons for me?" Skyfire's optics flickered as he nodded and removed the null rays- the catch was hard to see where it was mostly hidden by a transformation seam. Skyfire had helped Starscream build the original prototype, though, and he knew where the tiny catch was. He took both of them, in addition to Starscream's laser rifles, and put them on a table for later retrieval.

"I didn't think Bumblebee hit him that hard." Skyfire said mildly, standing up to get out of Ratchet's way as the medic bustled around running a scanner over the seeker.

"He didn't." Ratchet said, pulling his hand away from the seeker's neck cabling to reveal a code dart.  
"But Jazz wanted to make sure he stayed offline in transit. And now /I/ want to ask him a few questions. That should bring him around in a breem or two. You stay here and watch him while I get the /other/ slagging jet out of here."

* * *

The other slagging jet was making his way to medbay, incresaingly uncomfortable. He found himself wondering why Vortex had glue, Starscream had knock-out rays...while Defensor and Silverbolt had some of the deadlier weapons on either side. First Aid didn't even USE his...Raid shrugged, figuring that Primus works in mysterious ways, and entered medbay, where Ratchet was existing an isolation room. Air Raid caught a glimpse of Skyfire sitting within, but nothing else.

"Is Skyfire okay?" Raid asked, craning his neck around to try and see.

Whap. A gentle one.

"He's fine, now sit down while I get some solvent to get that slag out of your...how did this happen anyway?"

Air Raid promptly replied, "Vortex shot me with his glue gun. Say, Ratchet, why does Vortex have something like a glue gun, and First Aid has that whatsit that breaks things?"

"Because your creator is a mad scientist." Ratchet deadpanned. "Here. Take this to the washracks- you can use the ones here, but it's going to make a mess. Just pour it straight into your turbines and rinse it out. The glue will come right out with it. Report at the beginning of next shift and whoever is on duty will recheck, but this is more in the nature of messy than actually dangerous. At least /one/ of you has the sense Primus gave microchips. If you'd flown back at your usual speed this could have made your jets seize up, and /that/ is dangerous- especially in flight. Now-"

"Ratchet!" Skyfire called from acros the medbay. "He's waking up."

"Slagging glitched creation of a pencil sharpner and a two credit pleasuredrone- I'll be right there!" Ratchet yelled back. "You, washracks." He thumped Air Raid on the chest with one thick finger.

Air Raid nodded and dashed out, the solvent in hand. He didn't want to use the medbay washracks; the 'racks nearer the hangar were a lot hotter. So he hurriedly went through the more than slightly disgusting process of flushing his turbines, and nearly gagged at the goop that came out...seems a dead mouse had gotten up there, too, and he had no idea how. Ew.

* * *

Fireflight sank down on the pillowpile in the open area- it was a lot better than the tiny little isolation room, and he could really stretch his wings on this. Plus, it was soft. And it smelled like his brothers, who still had not returned. Fireflight got up for a little while and went to his berth, finding a small packet of enercrisps he'd shoved under there right before this had all happened. There were still a few left, so he ate them, watching the hangar door.

/Are you guys coming back soon?/ Fireflight commed plaintively. It wasn't an emergency, exactly, but Ratchet /had/ let him out of the medbay, so it didn't count, really, did it?

/Where are you, Flight?"/ Silverbolt asked. /We're running a quick patrol before we come in, everyone's just fine./

/Except me. Ratchet didn't tell me you weren't in here or I would have waited till later! I thought it was you he was with in isolation!/ Air Raid added. /I got Vortex's stupid glue in my intakes./

/There's someone else in there?/ Slingshot said suspiciously. /Is it a 'Con?/

Silverbolt sighed for the fiftieth time that cycle. /All right, we'll be home shortly. Can we keep this channel open for emergencies and save the chatter?/

/Yes, Silverbolt./ The words came from at least three different jets, all in different tones...but they listened.

* * *

Skyfire's blue optics met Starscream's crimson ones as soon as they opened. "Where am I-slag." The cuffs told him /exactly/ where he was. "I demand to speak to someone about negotiating my release!" Which was Starscream's right, really- as SIC, he was valuable enough that Megatron would likely negotiate, and not leave him here to rot. Especially if Starscream kept his trap shut. So his lips pursed, and he waited for Ratchet to return. glaring holes in his former partner.

"Give me /one/ good reason why I shouldn't turn you over to Silverbolt and the rest of Fireflight's brothers." Ratchet said. The door sealed behind him as he stepped up next to the berth where Starscream was restrained.

Starscream ignored the sarcasm. "Has it even occured to you Auto-idiots that /he/ came to /me/? Your darling little innocent jetling isn't as innocent as you all seem to think he is."

Ratchet ignored the sour tone and looked deep into Starscream's optics. "If I /ever/ find out you so much as /hinted/ at coercing Flight, I will ensure that your miserable body is never found. Is that clear?"

Starscream stared back, unruffled. "I just /told/ you that he came on to /me/. Clean out your audios, mech. From what I've heard, just about everybot on your side has had him one time or another-"

His comment was broken off by a shriek, as Ratchet clamped an power inhibitor onto Starscream's wingtip, none too gently. "My apologies, Ar Commander." Ratchet said with a glare.

* * *

Air Raid came out of the 'racks, leaving the gluey dead mouse on the floor near the drain. /He/ wasn't on punishment detail, he wasn't cleaning it. That was all there was to it. He strode into the hangar to find everyone cuddled up on Fireflight in the middle of the room, watching some inane reality show on TV. He shrugged and plopped himself on Silverbolt's other side, figuring he'd enjoy the togetherness for as long as he could. Sure, he was aggravated at Flight for getting all the attention. He wasn't going to let it bother him now.

"Raaaaaid!" Fireflight murmered, squirming across Bolt to plop himself into Air Raid's lap. "I missed you. Glad you're okay." He giggled and leaned forward to rest his head on Air Raid's shoulder, reaching around to stroke one of Air Raid's white wings.

Air Raid shivered appreciatively, snuggling closer to Silverbolt, who Fireflight was sprawled across. Flight's fingers rubbed Silverbolt's shoulder, moving to his commander's wings, slowly, gently. "Is it okay?" he asked. "You still want me, right?" Fireflight was worried that his brothers wouldn't want to be close, to 'face with him anymore since he had messed with Starscream.

"Of course it's okay, as long as it won't hurt your sparklings-"

"Sparkles."

'-sparkles, then." Silverbolt said, humoring his brother. He stroked Flight's back with clearer intent, moving large fingers into the seam on his back.

Slingshot and Skydive had taken the hint already, Skydive flat on his back underneath Slingshot, who was kissing Skydive so hard it looked like they were trying to weld to each other. Dark wings twitched under the onslaught, and Dive's feet twitched on the floor, his head supported by a stolen pillow.

Fireflight purred and arched into Bolt's touch on his wings, rubbing his chest plating against Air Raid's. Static sparks flew between them as metal ground over metal and Fireflight's oversensitized spark sent out pulses of pleasure that reflected across the gestalt bond to his brothers.

"What the frag was /that/?" Slingshot asked, sitting up in astonishment and releasing Skydive.

"My sparkles need energy." Fireflight said, slyly pleased. "So everything's more intense."

"Mmm, /really/." Raid decided to test that little theory and took Flight's right wing in hand, skimming his fingertips over the flat expanse. His lips latched onto Flight's neck cabling, nibbling just a bit. He sent his own desire through the bond, feeling it answered from each of his brothers, including Silverbolt who suddenly scooped Raid and Flight up, positioning them against him for optimal stimulation. Fireflight moaned aloud, quite appreciative of Silverbolt's size and strength, particularly in the berth.

"More, Bolt. Please!" he whimpered, his helm angled so that Raid could get at him easier. His own hands grabbed at both of his brothers, stroking and pinching, little sounds coming from his lips as each pulse seemed to go through him and amplify itself.

It was certainly working on Slings and Dive- those two were almost 'facing without removing panels. The grind of metal on metal could be heard, and Slingshot had Skydive pinned against the floor, ravishing his neck with a single-minded deternimation that made the tactician squirm. He reached around and twisted Slings' wingtip, making the Harrier cry out and redouble his efforts, both of their arousal shooting through their wide-open bond .

"Is this what you want, Flight?" Silverbolt wrapped his arms around his gestaltmate, dragging his fingers lightly down Fireflight's sides to trace over his interface panel, already hot from where he had been grinding against Air Raid.

Fireflight panted. "Please, Bolt- Raid!" Air Raid snickered.

"Looks like those rumors about carriers running hot are true."

"Just- don't tease me, I want this!" Fireflight's tone had become needy, now and he looked up at Silverbolt with pleading optics. He reached down to tease the edges of Silverbolt's interface paneling, drawing a light gasp from his gestalt leader.

Air's Raid's optics danced, almost , as he moved in front of Fireflight and whispered in his audial. "Bet I know something. You wanna be in the middle /again/, don't you?" Fireflight nodded quickly, turning so his back was to Silverbolt, leaning against the larger jet and facing Air Raid.

Silverbolt bit his lip at the touches and continues working across Flight's closed panel, which doesn't stay closed for long, not with Silverbolt's fingers doing /that/. He opened himself to his brother, his want echoing through all five of them, intensifying it.

Skydive was already moaning steadily; Slingshot had wasted ZERO time in getting the dark flyer down and was enthusiastically mouthing Dive's valve, much to Skydive's delight.

Slingshot hiked Skydive's legs up, bracing the other jet's knees on his shoulders, supporting his brother with one hand and pulling at his own spike with the other.

"Yes, I wanna be in the middle!" Fireflight said, squirming as Bolt sank a finger carefully into his valve, spreading lubricant and stretching the smaller jet carefully. "Wanna spike you and ride Bolt, please!"

"Now, Slings." Skydive murmured, encouraging his brother through the bond and with his body, canting his hips slightly to give Slingshot a better angle in which to slip inside him. The Harrier smirked and thrust, spreading Skydive open, but his movements were the slow, long and gentle ones that he knew his quiet brother loved so much. The shock of penetration hit every Aerial in the room, and soft moans fell from several lips, only one totally stifiling his response.

Silverbolt nodded, his lip sore from repeated bites, as he worked his fingers into Fireflight gently so as to not harm his smaller brother. Flight's valve felt somewhat different, though- more pliable, and certainly more responsive. Flight writhed more than he usually did under the treatment, his intakes fast and harsh. He scratched at Air Raid's valve cover, wanting to touch, to make him feel good as well. He knew how Raid liked to be touched; that was the good thing about being a gestalt...your brothers always knew what you wanted.

"Let me in, Raid-" Fireflight steadied himself against Air Raid's frame, reaching down between their bodies. Air Raid gasped, his interface covers retracting, spike springing into Fireflight's waiting hand which stroked up and down before continuing its path downward to trace around Air Raid's valve. "Wanna be inside you, wanna make you feel so /good/." Fireflight moaned.

Silverbolt pulled his hand back, wrapping his free arm around fireflight and lifting him slightly, looping his other arm underneath Fireflight's thigh to plunge two fingers deeply into the Phantom's valve. Fireflight shrieked, back arching and head tilting back against Silverbolt, static charge crawling over his itnerface array and up Silverbolt's arm.

Flight's hypersensitivity was getting to /all/ of them; Slingshot was moaning loudly as he drove slightly more forcefully into Skydive, whose wings thudded against the floor in a shuddering motion. His soft tones became more urgent, and he tried to buck upward, to force Slingshot deeper into him, but Slings wasn't having any of /that/; he just grinned and picked up the pace a little, his spike near to exploding from the stimulation.

"Then /do/ it, Flight, want you!" Air Raid keened, lust making him impatient. He spread himself more widely, displaying his leaking valve to Fireflight. Flight purred loudly, a sound that morphed into a loud gasp as he slid two fingers inside Raid, right about the same time that Bolt twisted his large fingers just /so/, skidding over a node that Flight didn't even know he /had/. He could feel Silverbolt's spike pressing against him, its hot length almost too large for him to take, but he wanted it in him, /now/! "Pleeeease Bolt!" he whined, bucking into the fingers. "Want you inside me!"

Silverbolt groaned and shifted Fireflight against him, lining up his spike with Fireflight's streaming valve. "I don't want to hurt you, shhh, easy!" He used his grip on Fireflight's thigh to keep Fireflight from sinking down entirely on his spike, forcing the Phantom to wait until his valve adjusted, calipers twitching almost frantically around Silverbolt's spike.

Air Raid had other ideas, though, and moved foward to fit his pelvic plating against Fireflight's, pushing Fireflight's hands away and sliding Fireflight's spike into his own valve, pulling the Fireflight against him. The movement twisted Fireflight's leg slightly, the lubricant running down his thighs making his legs slippery, and Silverbolt lost his grip, dropping Fireflight onto his spike, pressed down by Air Raid's weight along with his own.

Fireflight shrieked again, this time in a little pain, but it wasn't the /bad/ kind, at least not for very long! "Uhhhhhnf!" he cried, a bit of coolant leaking from his left optic. "I'm fine, I'm fine, oh Primus, move!" He wriggled a little bit, mostly to encourage Silverbolt but more insistently when he figured out that it felt slagging /good/. He jerked slightly up, pressing further into Raid, and was happy to hear his brother's deep moan when sensors contacted Flight's charged spike.

Silverbolt frowned, not even moving. "Are you sure you're okay, Flight? I don't want to hurt you or the-"

"Please just frag me, Bolt. PLEASE."

Skydive managed, "Yes, Bolt, do it before he drives us /all/ insane; he LIKES it!" Slingshot frowned and redoubled his efforts; apparently, if Skydive could still speak coherently, Slings was doing something wrong.

Air Raid reached around past Fireflight to tweak Silverbolt's shoulder winglets; the Concorde shivered with another groan, his hips twitching involuntarily. Fireflight arched again with another cry, chestplates opening with a creak of nearly-new hinges and hydraulics and the brilliant blue-white light of his spark reflected up onto Air Raid's plating.

"Flight?" Raid gasped, shocked, even as he rocked, pushing Fireflight's spike deeper within himself. "What are you-"

"Sparkles-need it. Help me please? Everyone?" Slingshot grumbled, annoyed, but he climbed off Skydive and relocated close enough where they could all try and merge, laying Dive next to Silverbolt and slipping back inside the darker jet.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Silverbolt's Voice of Reason was strained due to Flight's wriggling and Raid's hands on Bolt's sensitive shoulder winglets, but Flight just nodded and said, "Ratchet said it was okay!Please!" The shining blue was hypnotic, and the others slowly, so slowly opened themselves as well, soft cries from the interfacing mixed with the moans from a five-way sparkmerge that was likely to knock everyone into stasis if they weren't careful.

Silverbolt knew he'd have to take control of this one- Flight was in no condition, not with him crying out with every movement, and his other brothers were in similar states. Silverbolt's own control hung on a by a thin thread, and he finally nodded, baring himself fully. "Be one with me." he whispered, and that was one order his brothers had no problem following.

Fireflight's spark surged, crackles of energy branching out light lightning as his brothers' sparks were exposed, and he convulsed between Air Raid and Silverbolt, overloading spark, spike, and valve all at once with a piercing cry.

Slingshot and Skydive followed him over, Slingshot pumping into Skydive's valve and stilling with a cry, and Silverbolt moved a few more times before his spike flooded Fireflight's valve, dripping down around where his spike disappeared into Fireflight's valve. Air Raid continued rocking against Fireflight's spike, keening as the stimulation to his own spark adn Fireflight's hand clenching on his spike pushed him into overload as well, silvery transfluid spraying onto Fireflight's red and white abdominal plating.

"Ohhhhh!" Fireflight cried, the flare of his spark actually echoed by two tiiiiny little surges visible in his spark chamber. "They...like you!" he said disjointedly, his optics actually fading a bit. "See?"

The others groaned, really in no condition to be trying to look...except Silverbolt, who moved just enough to see two happily spinning 'sparkles'. He smiled gently. "They do, Flight. They do.

* * *

Ratchet stepped back from the berth and dropped the welder he'd been using onto a tray next to him. "There. That's done." He glanced up at Skyfire. "Can you watch him until Ironhide gets here to escort him to the brig?"

Skyfire nodded twice, almost shortly. His gaze was everywhere /but/ at Starscream, though. The walls were rather boring in here, but he stared anyway.

"Now that we're alone, do you think you could let an old friend out of these cuffs?" Starscream had the audacity to ask, in a wheedling tone.

Skyfire's reply was pure ice, colder than that which he'd been buried under for millions of years. "Starscream, shut /up/. There is nothing in this universe that would cause me to actually free you."

"You loved me, once-"

"And then you tried to lure me into your band of murderers, and when I refused, you tired to decativate me. No thank you, Starscream. Now be silent or I will inform ratchet that your vocalizer is glitching. And by the time I tell him, it /will/ be." Starscream always brought out the worst in Skyfire...

"Fine. Aft. I just wanted to..." Starscream fell silent, unwilling to follow that train of thought aloud.

"Wanted to what? Go find that poor Aerialbot and /rape/ him again?" Skyfire rumbled, optics blazing. "Oh, I'm sure he doesn't think of it that way. But I know you, Starscream. Or at least, I thought I did. He's a /child/, even I never thought you'd stoop that low."

"I did /nothing/ of the sort! Skyfire! How sick do you think I am? I don't /have/ to force anyone. They come to /me/." Starscream snapped arrogantly. "He was /more/ than willing to have me. I did nothing wrong." He glared at the shuttle, hurt and anger warring with each other in his processor.

"You had to have coerced him. They're innocents caught up in a war that's not any more theirs than it is mine!" Skyfire retorted. "And no one but me seems to realize that!"

Starscream shrieked loudly, "I /did not force a fragging thing/ on Fireflight! If he's an innocent, he's one who has the fluids of others on his hands as well as I do! He fights in this war, he shoots and gets shot at and risks his miserable plating for your fragging cause and your Prime. Who he chooses to spend his off time with is /none/ of your concern, and if he's old enough to fragging die for you, he's old enough to take some pleasure as well!" He took several harsh intakes of air, more upset at the idea that he could have coerced the Aerial, however unwittingly, than he will ever admit.

Skyfire glared, but was prevented from responding as the door swished open again.

"Do I need to disable his vocal processor, too?" Ratchet groused, envering the room with Ironhide a step behind him. "Skyfire, help me with the cuffs." Ironhide picked up Starscream's nullrays and subspaced them, followed by teh laser rifles. Ratchet glared up at Starscream. "If you can't behave, I *will* just slap you in stasis till Old Buckethead decides the NEmesis needs more shrieking, got it?"

"Frag yourself with a rusty chainsaw, medic. That's against your fragging Autobot Rules and Regs." Starscream snorted, willingly allowing his cuffs to be manipulated because only a fool would take on Ironhide while unarmed. "I won't be here long. The Nemesis will positively fall apart without my presence."

He continued glaring holes through Skyfire, somewhat annoyed that their little chat had been interrupted.

Ironhide snorted, fastening Starscream's hands behind his back with perhaps more force than strictly necessary.

"Kinky, Ironhide. You could use some pointers on how to use these cuffs, though-"

"If you don't shut the frag up, Screamer, I will shut you up myself!" Ironhide declared. "Or just lock you in a cell alone with Silverbolt. That might be interesting."

"You wouldn't /dare/-" Starscream was...ambivalent about that possibility. Not afraid. Starscream did not feel fear. But he was very, very ambivalent.

"Just try me, glitch." Ironhide said, propelling Starscream ahead of him out the door to the rest of the medbay.

Skyfire busied himself picking up the tools that Ratchet had used- it wasn't in any way his job, but he was in no hurry to spend more time listening to Starscream's lies in the hallway. Ratchet eyed him but shrugged and began setting the berth itself back to rights. As they finished, Skyfire spoke up.

"Is he going to stand trial? For what he did to Fireflight?"

Ratchet sighed. He looked Skyfire squarely in the optics and shook his head. "He didn't do anything, Skyfire. I examined him myself. There were absolutely no signs of force. I can't test for psychological trauma, but I don't believe he was coerced, either. Fireflight was overcharged and he interfaced with the wrong mech. Happens all the time. He just happened to get sparked."

* * *

Starscream was silent for most of the way down to the brig, except when Ironhide ran his wing into the wall for the third time. Then, he cursed. Loudly. And questioned Ironhide's probable creator and coder's heritage, comparing them to cybercats bred with a glitched Quintesson.

"Stop /doing/ that!" Starscream ordered. "Your precious Prime would hardly approve of abusing a helpless prisoner, now would he?!"

"What Prime doesn't know won't hurt him." Ironhide said. "SHut up and keep walking." Starscream scowled, but started on down the hallway towards the brig.

"Someone will tell him. I need the 'racks." Starscream ordered, forgetting that Ironhide was under less than no obligation to listen to him. "I am filthy and reek of that slagging plant. What do they create energy from, offal?"

* * *

Skyfire stared in amazement. "How can you be on his side, Ratchet? Fireflight could not have known what he was doing, he is still too young..."

Ratchet actually rolled his optics at that. "They were sparked adults." he reminded Skyfire. "And he's been 'facing regularly with his team since they were a quartex or so old. They got The Talk. He knew what could happen if he 'faced outside his gestalt. He knew, Skyfire."

"Even preprograms were off limits to full adults until they were a vorn, Ratchet. You're old enough to remember that." SKyfire retorted. "And I doubt Starscream needed to resort to force, when words would do. He's always been persuasive; you have no idea how charming he can be when he wants something!"

* * *

"Fossilized offal, dumbaft." Ironhide said. "Don't know why you botherd hitting a coal plant anyway, the energon from coal power tastes worse than slag."

"Not my idea." Starscream said truculently. "Blame Buckethead. He's the moron who picked it." The brig came into view- an unlovely orange-walled place, much like the rest of the Ark. What the Autobot obsession was with the color orange, Starscream would never know.

* * *

"That's when we weren't at war, with our populationg leveol down by nearly 85%." Ratchet replied. "Why don't you try /talking/ to Flight about it, instead of assuming? The humans have a saying about that word, assume. They say it makes an ass out of U and ME. And I think they have something there."

"Fine." Skyfire's crystalline optics harden. "I will. And if I find out the tiniest hint that Starscream made him do it- whether by force or words- I /will/ see him brought up on charges."

Ratchet snorted. "Good luck with that."

* * *

Back on the Nemesis, Skywarp groaned and flung the half-full cube of energon across the room.

"What the slag was that for!?" Thundercracker growled, hands on his hips. THe energon had splashed across him, running into one air scoop and down Thundercracker's cockpit glass to pool stickily along the bracing.

"This tastes like /aft/, TC." Skywarp whined.

"Quit being a slagging sparkling, Warp, shut up and drink it."  
"Don't want it, TC, and you can't make me. I feel sick anyway." Skywarp's face looked a little duller than normal, as if he hadn't been polishing it...and to a vain Seeker, that was fairly serious.

"What's gotten /into/ you, 'Warp?" TC asked as he unsubspaced a cloth and wiped the sticky energon mess off his frame. "You're being more than an aft than usual. Did you frag Screamer, too?"

"Slag /off/, TC." Skywarp's normal laughing tone was serious. "I feel like slag. Really. And those rations are disgusting."

* * *

/Fireflight, report to the medbay. Gestalt-visiting hours are over./ Ratchet commed, not limiting the transmission to just Fireflight.

"Flight-" Silverbold nudged his brother. "Wake up. Ratchet wants you back in the 'bay." Fireflight, tucked under his wing and sandwiched in by Slingshot on the other side mutteed something and tucked his head further against Silverbolt's plating.

"Don't wanna. Tired. Five more minutes." Fireflight mumbled, rolling onto his side while clutching Slingshot like an oversized plushie.

"/Flight/. You have to. Punishment, remember?" Silverbolt removed a suddenly irate Slingshot from Fireflight's grasp, flicking his wingtip against Flight's helm.

"Slaaaaag." Flight whined. "I was /comfortable/."

"Not much longer, Flight. Just a few more days and you'll be done. You can go recharge in there."

"Hard to recharge alone, Bolt." Which was true enough; Fireflight was very used to recharging in a giant jetpile with his brothers, not alone on a cold medbay berth. He got up, though, giving his brothers a long, sad look before exiting the hangar.

It was getting late, and most of the Ark was in recharge- or at least their own quarters- and Fireflight didn't run into anyone at all on his walk from the Aerialbots' hanger to the medbay. The door opened for him, and Ratchet was waiting.

"Have a good time with your gestalt, then?" THe medic raised an optic ridge and smirked.

Fireflight looked at his feet, only belatedly noticing the splashes of silver transfluid drying on his plating. "Er-"

"Washracks are through there. And then I want to put a monitor on you before I go off shift." Ratchet said tiredly. "I want to see what your spark is doing after a merge- you did merge, right? It needs to stay on for a joor, I'll look at it when I come back on shift."

Fireflight nodded, moving towards the washrack, before stopping in his tracks. "I'm gonna be alone in here?"

Ratchet nodded...then shook his head. "You have your sparkles. It doesn't hurt to talk to them. We don't know if they can understand you, but it certainly doesn't hurt. You need to get used to it- it takes a long time for a sparkling to grow old enough to take care of itself."

Fireflight nodded, not sure what to make of that. He remembered that Ratchet had asked him a question. "Yeah, we merged. All five of us at once. The sparkles were happy. They were spinning and all that!" Flight grinned at that, remembering what that had looked like. He headed toward the 'racks, wondering why he'd forgetten to wash. Anybody could have seen how...messy he was.

Messy or not, though, washing up didn't take long, and Ratchet was ready with a little square patch connected to a wire that he stuck in the tiny gap where Fireflight's central transformation seams met over his spark casing.

"Don't let that pull out," Ratchet ordered. "Now go get some recharge, so I can get the slag out of here."

Fireflight sighed heavily, sounding a lot like Silverbolt. "I'll try, Ratchet. Say...do you have any energon...I'm sort of hungry." he admitted. After the merge, he'd felt ravenous and gulped down the bitter slag that contained the additives he needed. He was hoping to get some without that stuff now, before he went into recharge.

Ratchet rolled his optics, but produced a cube- with supplements- from a cabinet, shooing Fireflight- and the cube- into the isolation room off the back of the medbay. "I'm leaving your comm on, but the same rules apply. Hoist is the medic on call if there's any sort of emergency."

Fireflight looked at the cube and shuddered. But his tank made an odd grinding noise, so he took it from Ratchet, and sipped at it without complaint. "I'll follow the rules, Ratchet. I just wanna get out of here." He made a face at the cube before entering the isolation room. Ratchet secured it behind him and Fireflight listened to the latch locking as he stretched out on the narrow berth. The wire on his chest was starting to itch, and he scratched carefully at the seam, not wanting to dislodge it.

"This sucks slag, sparkles. Sparkleses, I guess, since there's two of you. I am never gonna frag a 'Con again, no matter how good looking he is. This is SO not worth it." He finished his cube and flopped on the berth, on his back so as to not dislodge the wire, and stared at the ceiling, one hand over his spark. It wasn't the same as his brothers, but Ratchet was right.

He wasn't alone.


	5. Chapter 5

More smut in this part!

* * *

Fireflight onlined his optics and nearly fell off the berth with a yelp trying to duck away from the scanner Ratchet was currently holding a few mechanimeters from his face. Ratchet scowled at him.

"Hold still." Ratchet fiddled with something out of Fireflight's view, and then detached the monitor match from Fireflight and the scanner, and dropped it onto a recycling tray, giving Fireflight an accusatory glare as if the readings he was reviewing were a personal slight. "I don't like your energy readings."

"What does that mean? Are the sparkles okay?" Fireflight said, sitting up to accept the cube Ratchet handed him.

"You merged with your gestalt, but your spark isn't displaying much of a net energy gain. The sparklets are fine, though."

"I merged with all of us and it didn't give me more energy?" Fireflight squeaked. "I, um...did I do somethng /wrong/ with that, then?" He sipped the cube and made a face. "Ratchet, do you think I can have something in here that doesn't taste like slag, maybe, please?"

"No." Ratchet answered absently, still engrossed in his scanner. "I'm going to do a little research. In the mean time, you're scheduled for flight time with your gestalt after that. Hmm." He picked up the little monitor patch again, plugged it into the scanner to reprogram it, and then stuck it back on Fireflight. "We'll see what it does. Now, get out of my medbay."

"I have to wear this again?" Flight sort of whined. He was moving, though. His wings itched. Come to think of it, his spark itched too, but not as bad as it did the day before. He hurried out of medbay.

"Yes, you do!" Ratchet shouted after him. "And don't scratch it!"

* * *

Thundercracker stared down at Skywarp, arms crossed and glaring at the purple and black seeker who had just purged onto the floor of the Elite Trine's quarters.

"You realize, don't you, that if /you've/ gotten sparked up again, Screamer will NEVER let us hear the end of it."

"Frag you, TC. I hope I'm not. Tired of getting this way and.." Skywarp didn't finish the statement. He looked at the mess on the floor and flicked his wings, tossing a cloth over it.

"The Decepticon Army is no place for a carrying Seeker." Thundercracker insisted.

"You dont think I don't fragging know that?" Skywarp said, irritated. "Haven't gone to Hook for a scan yet. So you can't prove a damn thing. And he isn't even here. He's visiting his boyfriend." Skywarp rolled his eyes and scrubbed at the cloth with one pede.

* * *

"I /still/ can't believe that stupid Aerialbot got himself sparked up." Powerglide ranted for at least the fifth time that day. Windcharger and Bumblebee exchanged longsuffering looks and shuffled the playing cards again.

"They're probably going to desert us all." Gears grumbled. "Everyone knows that you have to practically be sparkbonded to someone to let 'em spark you."

"Probably been traitors all along!" Cliffjumper agreed.

"Fragging 'Cons. Like /we/ aren't good enough. Disgusting." Powerglide snorts, still more than a bit upset at Skydive's little trick, and the subsequent blank stare Silverbolt had given him when he complained.

"I hear he's been with every Seeker on the Nemesis, all at once." Cliffjumper revealed. "Wasn't overcharged, like he claims. Just did it. Because he could."

A large presence suddenly loomed over the gossiping minibots. The shadow was larger than most of the 'Bots could manage, and Skyfire's face was twisted into a very atypical scowl.

* * *

Air Raid snorted impatiently as Fireflight caught up with them in the entrance to the Ark. "Took you long enough. Did you not wanna fly today or something?"

"I had to wait till Eject took over on monitors for me and he was late." Fireflight said. "So-RRY!" He flicked his wings impatiently.

Skydive stepped out of the shadow of the Ark and smiled slightly. "Are you ready to go, then? I thought we might go north today."

Fireflight nodded. "Anywhere. My wings itch, I just wanna fly for awhile." He felt tired, though...not so tired he'd mention it, otherwise his brothers might change their minds about taking him out. "Where are Bolt and Slings, anyway?" he asked, checking to make sure his energy levels were actually high enough to get him where he wanted to go. They /seemed/ to be, but...he'd need a cube when he landed, he was sure of it. He made a face at the thought.

"Bolt's at a meeting, and Slings is in Prowl's office, I think." Raid said cheerfully. "Dunno why, either, but I'm sure he did something!"

"Less gossip, more flight." Skydive said quietly, taking to the sky with a small grin.

* * *

Skyfire loomed over the minibots at their table in the recreation room. "Exactly what are you implying about Fireflight and the rest of his gestalt?"

Powerglide gulped audibly. "Nothing, Skyfire. Never said a thing about the gestalt. Just the one who got sparked by a 'Con. That's fact, isn't it? not rumor."

Cliffjumper just /looked/ at Powerglide. Dumbaft.

Skyfire's optics flared bright azure. "You know nothing, Powerglide, and I suggest that you keep your mouth shut about subjects that you know nothing about."

"I'll just go down to the brig and ask Screamer-"

A large hand slammed flat onto the table, and Gears jumped. "I wouldn't. Not unless you want to be in so much trouble that you's mucking out the energon storage tanks for eternity, not unless you want to explain to /Prime/ just what your issue is."

"Skyfire, my mech, is there a problem here?" Jazz's smooth voice carried from behind them.

Skyfire looked up and shook his head roughly. "No problems here. Are there?"

The minibots shook their heads quickly.

Skyfire stood up fully and looked down at Jazz. "Nothing wrong here." With that, he swept out of the rec room, his lips pursed into a thin line. He had somewhere to be.

* * *

Fireflight would have smiled if he'd had a face in his alt mode. The wind felt wonderful under his wings and pressing against his flaps and ailerons as they headed due north, over Seattle and on towards the Canadian border. /Guys? Think we can find a place to land and take a break before we head back?/

Air Raid commed back, /Why? Getting tired?/ His tone was equal parts smug and concerned. He slowed down, Skydive doing the same, as they looked for a space wide and empty enough to land three fliers.

/A little./ Fireflight admitted, and spotted an empty field just below them. /Right here might work.../

/Mind the cattle!/ Skydive said, only partly joking. /I don't know how well they'd take seeing us land practically in their laps.../

/Oh, I see them. Don't worry, Dive, I'm not gonna get cow stuck in my thrusters. The mouse was bad enough.../ Air Raid said, grimacing inwardly.

The three landed, Firefight with a small bump, and transformed as quickly as possible. Skydive and Air Raid looked with concern in their optics at their brother. "Are you all right?" Skydive asked.

"What's that stuck to your chestplats?" Air Raid pokes at the little tail of sensor wire sticking out from Ratchet's monitoring patch.

Fireflight shrugged. "Ratchet said to keep it on." He pulled a cube out of subspace, the supplements that had already been added turning it to a murky blue-green color, and peeled off the lid. "I wish I could hold my nose like organics do when they hafta eat something nasty they don't wanna taste." He made a face before taking a large swallow from the cube.

Air Raid wrinkles his olfactories at the scent. "That smells...really gross, Flight."

"It's good for him, though." Skydive pointed out, looking at the swirling murkiness.

"I know, the manual says he needs extra stuff to form the casings-the eggs." Raid said, humoring his brother. "And he's got two so he needs even more."

Fireflight looked at what was left of the fortified energon and sighed deeply before downing it in a hurried gulp. His tank almost rebelled, but he kept it down, where it belonged, and patted his chest, right over the sensor Ratchet had placed there. "You guys are worth it, even if it DOES taste like slag."

Skydive watched his brother talk to his sparklings without a single word.

"What else did Ratchet say? Said to not fly too much, I bet." Air Raid said with a frown.

Fireflight shook his head. "He said I can fly as much as I feel like as long as I stop if anything starts feeling funny or wrong and call and go to my checkups. At least, once I'm not in trouble anymore."

Skydive laughed at that. "Flight, you're /always/ in trouble for something." His tone was dry and teasing, though, and he leaned over to take the empty cube, setting it on the ground next to them and pressing a kiss to Fireflight's lips.

* * *

Jazz looked down at the cards on the table, and then up at the players before turning and walking away, quickening his pace as soon as he passed the door to the recc room to catch up with Skyfire.

"What?" Skyfire said flatly, slowing his pace so that the smaller mech with his sorter legs could keep up. He was on his way somewhere, very quickly.

"You on duty, Skyfire?" Jazz said. He had to walk fast to keep up with the larger mech, but despite the speed, still gave the feeling that his keeping pace with Skyfire was purely casual.

"No. Not until later." Skyfire said, turning down a corridor deeper into the ship.

"In an awful hurry for a mech who ain't on duty, man." Jazz said.

"I have somewhere I should be going." Skyfire said stiffly, not looking at the smaller Ops mech.

"And where might that be, considering your frame of mind?" Jazz was no fool; he could tell that Skyfire was agitated by something.

Skyfire ground his denta together. "I need to speak to Silverbolt."

Jazz was unsurprised to hear this. It wasn't really his place to ask why, either. That was their business. So he merely nodded. "I just want to make sure everything's runnin' smooth as it can on the Ark, understand? Yeah, there's things going on, and people are sayin' stuff. But people /always/ say stuff, and you just need to remember that that doesn't make it true."

Skyfire stopped in his tracks and looked at Jazz, really /looked/ at him, and hesitated for a long moment. He finally nodded. "You have a very good point, Jazz. Thank you."

Jazz just nodded. "I'll let you get on with whatever you needed ta do, then."

* * *

Fireflight snuggled between his brothers, stroking Air Raid's wing where it lay under his hand and panting as his systems cooled down. His spark still throbbed pleasurably, and his spike still deep in Skydive's valve echoed the waves as the charge slowly dissipated.

"That was nice." Fireflight giggled. He thought he could feel his sparkles dancing around, too, but he wasn't completely sure. "I don't know how long I can fly now, though...I can get home, but I'll need more of that /yuck/ when we get there." Such was the price to pay for spark-tingling interface, but Flight knew it was well-worth it.

"You sure?" Skydive asked. "I have a cube in my subspace if you want it..."

Fireflight bolted upright, hand already out. "Please!" He was longing for a taste of /real/ energon, without that slag that Ratchet kept putting in it. He'd drink the slag, but some energon without it would be nice once in a while, too.

Skydive smiled and extricated himself from the jetpile, closing his panels and unsubspacing a fresh cube, somewhat smaller than standard but unsullied by additives and metallic salts. Fireflight licked his lips in anticipation.

* * *

Skyfire nodded his leave to Jazz and hurriedly made his way to Silverbolt's tiny office, banishing that odd feeling that struck him whenever he and Silverbolt were near each other. Skyfire thought it was ridiculous, what with him being so /ancient/ in comparison to Silverbolt, and thus said nothing about it. His body was nowhere near as circumspect and he found himself fighting off responses even during the most innocent of meetings, so he always tried to stay as far apart as possible, within the realms of politeness.

/Silverbolt? May I speak with you?/ Skyfire commed.

/Of course,/ Silverbolt replied after a moment. /Hot Spot and I are in his quarters- or I can meet you somewhere, if it's not urgent?/

/I'd prefer to speak to you in private,/ Skyfire admitted. /Your quarters would be fine, or the lab, if you'd rather not talk there./

/Your lab sounds fine, Slingshot is currently off shift and sulking in our quarters./ Silverbolt said dryly. /Which doesn't do much for a private discussion, as you can imagine. We'll be done here in about ten breems, would that be okay?/

/Of course./ Skyfire sent, already turning back up towards the nose of the Ark where the science labs were located.

* * *

Fireflight sipped the energon that Skydive gave him, and soon the sip became a lot more than a sip, and then it became a large gulp until it was completely gone. Flight handed back the empty cube with a grateful smile. "Thank y-" He got halfway through the sentence before his tanks rebelled quite vehemently against the unmedicated energon, and he purged all over Skydive's feet.

Air Raid rolled back with a scowl. "Gross, Flight! Better aim next time!"

"Yurgh." Fireflight moaned. "I forgot, forgot the medicine that stops me from purging all over the place. Ugh, Dive, I feel like /slag/."

Skydive looked down at the mess at feet feet with a frown, and then at his obviously distressed brother...and sighed, exventing warm air in a huff. "We'll stay here until you feel good enough to fly home, Flight."

* * *

Skyfire arrived at the science labs well in advance of Silverbolt, and he busied himself with making sure there was a relatively comfortable place for the jet to sit once he did arrive. He had just finished cleaning the pile of datapads off the battered upscale couch (it had been the first one Grapple had completed, relocated to the lab after an incident in the rec room proved it was much more fireproof than anyone had expected) when the door chimed, admitting the Concorde. Silverbolt entered with a small smile on his face- apparently, nothing too horrid had happened that day, or else Bolt would have been far more distressed. Skyfire didn't really want to ruin it, but things needed to be said regardless. Silverbolt was a commander, and he couldn't be expected to command without honesty from his fliers.

"Have a seat, Silverbolt. Do you need something to drink?" Skyfire asked politely.

Silverbolt smiled back at him and sat down on the newly-cleared couch, fingering a burn mark on the arm idly. "What did you need to talk to me about, Skyfire? I know the patrol schedules are incredibly chaotic, but your range makes you so much more versatile, and Powerglide and Blades just can't cover the route Fireflight was using."

Skyfire shook his head. "No, it's not about that at all." He paused. "Look, there's no easy way to say this. Do you think that Starscream ... coerced Fireflight?"

Silverbolt froze. His lips moved for a very brief moment, but nothing came out. He reset his vocalizer with an audible click and tried again. "I worry about that. I really do. Ratchet says no, though, and so does Fireflight. I believe my brother."

Skyfire's crystal blue optics narrowed. "Fireflight could have been coerced and not yet realize it. Forgive me for saying this, Silverbolt, but Fireflight is not the most mature of mechs, and his judgement is not... not always the best."

Silverbolt's wings quivered at the insult to his gestaltmate, but then he sighed and nodded; Skyfire only spoke the truth, only said much the same things he himself had echoed over the few years they'd been activated. "I know, Skyfire. And that wouldn't show up on Ratchet's tests, would it?"

"No." Skyfire shook his head. "Starscream is manipulative, he always has been. And he can be very charming when there's something he wants, if he thinks that's the easiest way to get it.

"Do you /think/ he forced Flight?" Silverbolt asked, optics dark.

Skyfire sighed. "I don't know. Truly, I don't. He's not the Starscream who was my partner, Silverbolt, he's changed an unbelievable amount in what seems like no time at all- a blink of the eye for me, centivorns for him. Before, I'd have said no without hesitation. He certainly never /needed/ to resort to coercion when I knew him, he had no shortage of partners willing and able to throw themselves and anything he could desire at his feet. He wouldn't... not that, especially not a mech who's barely more than a sparkling himself. But he's changed, so much... I don't know."

* * *

The flight back to the Ark had been slower, and Skydive and Air Raid had insisted on walking him straight back to the medical bay even though there were still three hours left on his scheduled free time. Fireflight protested loudly to no avail.

"Guys, it's not fair! I'm fine, I just forgot to take that stupid slagging crystal stuff!" He whined.

"You're tired and you purged on my /feet/." Skydive said firmly. "In, or I call Silverbolt and he'll tell you the same thing." Fireflight scowled as they walked through the door of the medical center.

"Fireflight - a pleasure to see you. I can't believe you simply missed this place, though," Hoist was the medic on duty, and he smiled at Fireflight as he followed Air Raid into the medbay.

Fireflight was relieved to see Hoist instead of Ratchet. Hoist tended to yell a LOT less. "Um." Fireflight said, looking a bit embarrassed, but wanting to tell it himself instead of letting his brothers explain for him. "I, um, need some more energon with the stuff in it, because I drank some regular stuff and purged all over Skydive."

Skydive and Air Raid nodded, the former heading directly to the medbay's washracks to spray off the remnants of Fireflight's little 'gift'.

Hoist nodded, and retrieved a cube already premixed, adding the contents of another vial to it and heating it briefly. "Try it this way. I have known carriers who preferred theirs warmed up instead of room temperature; it can mask the bitterness." Hoist looked at the monitor that Ratchet had attached and motioned for Flight to sit down. "Let's have a look at your sparkles and see how they're feeling, all right?"

* * *

Silverbolt wasn't reassured by this. Mechs could change, he knew, especially over an amount of time so vast his mind couldn't quite wrap itself around it. "Skyfire, if I discover that Starscream...if he...is he /raped/ Fireflight, his life will be measured in astroseconds, not vorns." Silverbolt's tone was determined. He meant what he was saying with everything that he was.

"Silverbolt, if /I/ find out that Starscream forced Fireflight there will not be enough left of him for you to take revenge on." Skyfire replied quietly, his hand clenching around a piece of lab glass until it shattered. He looked down, surprised, and began to brush the pieces into a pile.

Silverbolt sighed. "Skyfire, you're not responsible for Fireflight- he's my brother- or for Starscream, either."

The lab was silent for a long moment while Skyfire studied him, before eventually nodding. "I know. But I still feel as if - Silverbolt, this is /not/ meant to be disrespectful, but pre-programming or not, you five are so young." He looked down at the tabletop for a moment. "Everything has changed so much. So many places gone, people dead- I find myself forgetting how young you and your brothers are - and then when I remember, feeling horror that the Autobots were so willing to throw new sparks, pre-programming or not- into combat."

"We're not - technically, we're not new sparks." Silverbolt felt compelled to tell him. "Vector Sigma reformatted us from flyers who had died on Cybertron. We don't remember anything, but Wheeljack says that's where my fear of heights comes from- I was a transport shuttle. That's why our coding is hybrid coding, we have spark coding from our old frames, apparently."

Skyfire knew this, but his mind simply could not make him...he just /couldn't/. "I am aware of some of this; I have spoken with Wheeljack regarding your...creation. But the point remains that before...before I was trapped in the ice, there was no way in Pit that those of your age, pre-programmed and placed into adult forms or not, would be permitted to fight in a /war/, much less be sparking." There, he'd said it.

Silverbolt nodded slowly. "There is but one flaw in your logic, Skyfire. We /are/ adults, in everything but experience. Would you allow us to fight- and you do, you fight alongside us- but deny us the comfort of another after the battle is done?"

"In general, Silverbolt, I feel that my choices on that account are more limited than I would like for them to be." Skyfire said stiffly. "Like so much of this horrible war."

* * *

"We'll come back and see you when Hoist's done!" Air Raid promised. Fireflight was flat on a berth, and Hoist had completed the initial scan before deciding that Fireflight's privacy was /not/ going to be invaded, sparked up or not, and the next scan was going to involve him baring his spark. Skydive and Air Raid allowed themselves to be chivied out without more than a token protest while Fireflight made himself more or less comfortable on the berth and waited.

"Now Fireflight, I need you to remain very still, please." Hoist said. "I've called Ratchet to take a second look at this, but in the mean time, just keep your chest plates and spark casing retracted."

Fireflight looked up and nodded. "Okay." He initiated the codes and overrides to retract his plating, feeling the cooler air of medbay touch his spark casing until he bared it as well. A thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Hey, Hoist, my sparkles won't fall out if I keep myself open too long, will they? Cause I merge with my gestalt..." After he said it, he realized just how silly that sounded.

"No, Fireflight, they're attached to you." He fiddled with something, checking energy readings. "Hmm."

"What's 'Hmm' mean? Is that a good mmm or a bad one?" Fireflight almost demanded.

"It's an 'I'm not sure' mmm, Flight, and I'm afraid Ratchet is going to have to have a look here. You stay here- he'll be here fairly quickly." Hoist moved off for a moment, presumably to comm Ratchet. "You can close your plates if you want, though." Fireflight felt a little worried, now. Was everything okay?

* * *

Gestalt members, by nature, were tactile. Silverbolt stood up and rubbed Skyfire's arm lightly, trying to soothe him, and Skyfire almost jumped out of his plating, his EM field radiating a mixed mess of feelings that were impossible to sort out and decipher. Silverbolt raised a single optic ridge and stepped back a little, giving Skyfire his personal space.

"War does a lot of things to a lot of people, Skyfire." he said quietly. "I didn't want to fight within a joor of coming online for the first time...but I did. Because what we do is /right/. I'm sorry if I startled you."

Skyfire stiffened and pulled his arm away just a fraction of a mechanimeter- just enough to put a hair of distance between himself and Silverbolt.

"It's alright, Silverbolt. I suppose I'm not used to being touched."

* * *

Ratchet bustled into the medbay and directly over to the berth where Fireflight lay, leaning over Hoist to peer at the scanner in the other medic's hand without even bothering with a greeting. "Hmm. I see what you mean, Hoist." He turned to stare into Fireflight's chest long enough for the jet to squirm uncomfortably on the berth.

"Is something /wrong/ with my sparkles?" Fireflight asked in a small voice.

Ratchet made an exasperated noise. "No, your sparklets are fine. You, on the other hand, are losing energy at a rate that is entirely unacceptable. You merged with your gestalt again during your flight?"

"Yeah- just Skydive and Air Raid, but we merged. Did we do something wrong?"

Ratchet scowled again. "No, you didn't, but I was afraid of this. Flight, you're going to need to merge with someone outside your gestalt, and regularly, or I'm going to have to start hooking you up to spark support when you recharge so your spark energy doesn't slow down and de-sync from your brothers."

"What would happen if that did?" Fireflight squirmed upwards on the berth. Ratchet pulled the scanner back and motioned for him to close his chestplates, which Fireflight did gratefully.

"Any number of possibilities, none of them pleasant. In the worst case scenario, your spark might destabilize enough to deactivate you." Ratchet frowned as Fireflight sat up on the berth.

Fireflight's optics flew open wide. "Um. I don't want that to happen! So I have to merge outside my gestalt?" Despite the worry, the thought of Ratchet basically ordering him to go get fragged made him giggle just a little.

"What's so funny?" Ratchet grumbled, putting the scanner down.

* * *

Silverbolt's wings twitched. He couldn't fathom that, not being touched. "I'm sorry." he said again, stepping back further. "I won't do it again, since it bothers you."

Skyfire almost felt like kicking himself for that. "No, it's fine."

Silverbolt just shook his head. Skyfire was an enigma, to be sure...but there were problems he had to tend to, problems that didn't concern a large shuttleformer and his silent ways. "Let me know if you find out...anything, Skyfire, all right? I need to know the truth."

Skyfire nodded silently. That wasn't news he wanted to bring to Silverbolt's attention, but if it turned out to be true... they'd cross that spacebridge when they came to it.

"I guess I should be going, then." Silverbolt said, still standing close to Skyfire. "I need to check on Slingshot. He's quit grumbling into the bond, aand Skydive and the others are back from their flight."

Skyfire nodded. "Of course, don't let me keep you." He hesitated. "You're welcome to come talk to me any time you need to, you know. About Fireflight, or anything else."

Silverbolt had already half-turned towards the door, but he stopped, and looked back, glancing up at Skyfire- one of the only mechs on the Ark he had to look up at. "I might take you up on that."

* * *

Ratchet rolled his optics. "Anyone outside your gestalt should help. Although if you go near the brig, I *will* rivet you to one of the berths in here. I /know/ what carrier coding's like. You just need the energy boost." He paused. "I realize this is a little awkward. I'm sure.. um... Wheeljack would be glad to..."

"It's okay, Ratchet. I know how to ask people if they want to frag." Fireflight said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the berth. "Can I go now, then?"

Ratchet sighed, muttered something unpleasant sounding under his breath, and thurst another cube of doctored energon at him. "Take that with you, and get out of my medbay."

* * *

Skyfire smiled slightly. "Good. That's good. You have my comm code; please, call me anytime. I know it's difficult being in your position, and I'm always willing to listen." The look in his crystal-blue optics was warm and honest, with a hint of wistfulness that seemed to come from nowhere. Silverbolt did not notice, though, as he turned toward the door.

"See you later, Skyfire." The door opened and shut with a light 'swooshing' sound, leaving Skyfire alone.

* * *

Midway into last shift, the rec room was fairly quiet as mechs departed to their quarters or to pursue their own entertainments for the evening. Sideswipe sprawled on a sofa, Sunstreaker sitting on the floor in front of him detailing the armor of his forearms, buffing out tiny scratches from the transformation that brought his piledrivers into play. The minibot herd had cleared out after a few sharp words from Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe was lazily changing the chanel between a rcap of the Daytona 500 and a show about Bigfood living in the Sierra Nevadas.

"This sucks, Sunshine. Nothing good on TV at all." Sideswipe whineed, shifting his position on the couch. At least it was quieter minus the minis, and Sunstreaker's glare at the nickname was only haf-deadly, instead of full-on murderous.

"Don't call me Sunshine, glitch." he growled, working on a particularly stubborn dent. He finally managed to pop it out, and brought out the buffing cloth along with a tiny pot of golden yellow paint, intending to cover up the blemish right here.

"Hey, look, it's a documentary on the history of the Louvre!" Sideswipe nudged his brother, who actually looked up with some interest. "Turn that up a little." Sunstreaker ordered; he figured he'd listen to it while he worked.

Firefight eyed the energon dispenser as he walked into the rec room- except that using his ration code would just let Ratchet know he was trying to avoid the supplemented energon, and it probably wouldn't stay down, anyway. With a shrug. he moved on over into the seating area at the far end of the rec room, looking around. "Hi Sides. Hi Sunn- Sunstreaker." No one else was around.

Sunstreaker barely spared Fireflight a glance; he was busy with his paint job and with an interesting show. Besides, rumor had it that the jet had been playing around with Seekers; not something he wanted rubbing off on him. Not that he'd never thought about it; of course he had, considering he had his hands all over their plating every second orn or so. He just never /did/ it.

Sideswipe, on the other hand, was a lot friendlier, plus, he was bored nearly to tears by the art show. He knew that if he changed it, there'd be Pit to pay with Sunny, so he figured that Primus had sent him Fireflight as a distraction. "Hey, Flight. How are ya feeling?" he asked, genuinely curious. He had no really hard feelingss about what Fireflight had done; people did stupid slag when they got ovecharged, and Sideswipe himself felt sort of responsible, since it was his brew that had played a part in it.

"Not too bad." Fireflight said, sitting carefully on a chair - none of the chairs in the rec room were made for people with wings- catty-corner to Sideswipe's head. "It's kinda weird. Itchy, almost." He rubbed at his chestplates. "That's not in any of the datapads, I wonder if it's cuz there's two of 'em. I'm getting pretty tired of being locked up on my off shifts, though."

Sunstreaker, who must have been paying attention after all, snickered. "I bet. At least /you/ get out occasionally. When we go to the brig, Prowl tries to throw away the keys." He returned to painting the tiny scratches on his plating, covering the fresh paint with quick-dry so that he wouldn't scuff it up and have to start all over. He periodically glanced up at the program, but his attention was mainly on his finish.

"Itches. Hm. I wonder if our carrier had that happen. Are yours splitsparks, or regular twins?" Sideswipe asked. "And you should be glad you're only locked up part time, like Sunny said. If it was one of us who did that, they'd put us UNDER the brig." Sideswipe grinned, one of his trademark winning smiles that seemed to light up more than just his own face.

"I know - Ratchet wouldn't let them lock me down there, though." Fireflight shuddered. The brig was dark, deep under the mountain, and generally an unpleasant place for flyers, even one as relatively non-claustrophobic as Fireflight. "And Ratchet didn't say. There's different kinds of twins?" He looked curious. "There's nothing in the datafiles Ratchet gave me about that."

Sideswipe nodded. "Splitspark is like me an' this lunkhead over here-" said lunkhead elbowed Sideswipe in the skidplates without even looking- "-and regular is just two sparklings that happen to be carried at the same time." Sides gave Sunstreaker a dirty look, then continued. "I hope for their sake that they're normal. Otherwise they're kinda stuck with each other, like it or not. And that has its ups and downs." He ducked, figuring that Sunstreaker was going to slap him again, but Sunny remained focused.

"Ratchet must like you, then." Sunstreaker said softly. "He's intervened for us, at times- because we have to be together sometimes, just like your gestalt."

Sideswipe looked at Fireflight, really /looked/, and noticed that he looked a little different. A glow, maybe. Attractive. He'd aways found fliers attractive...

/What, wanting to go where the Screamer has already gone?/ Sunstreaker said over their twin bond.

Fireflight nodded slowly, oblivious to the twins' conversation. "Being stuck together's not so bad, though." He couldn't help thinking of all the times that he'd depended on his brothers for things. "Especially since they can't have a gestalt."

/And what's wrong with thinking about it, hm, Sunshine? Not like YOU haven't considered doing more than Jet Judo with the command trine yourself.../

/Call me Sunshine again and I'll cut you off for a decacycle./ Sunstreaker hissed through the connection. /The mech doesn't much like me, but if you think you can get him to go with us both.../

/Sunny, since when can I /not/?/ Sideswipe grinned, then focused his charm upon the Aerialbot. "Nah, not unless you end up with one with Sunny's atttitude. Imagine if your only brother was Slingshot."

Fireflight rubbed his chest plates again, offering Sideswipe a smile with a hint of /something/ behind it.

"Mind if I help? Sometimes an itch can only be scratched by another..." Sideswipe returned the smile, good humor and something else dancing in his cool blue optics. He reached out to scratch Flight's chestplates, carefully moving his fingers in a meaningful, yet innocent pattern. "You're looking nice, recently, Flight...they say it's that carrier glow. Are you glowing?"

Sunstreaker snorted over the twin bond; he hadn't heard anything that cheesy in a /very/ long time. He pretended not to notice, though, buffing out the last of the scrapes and minor cracks. The program was ending, and he grabbed the remote to lower the volume, wanting to hear the responses of the Aerialbot.

Fireflight didn't quite purr, but the glow of his optics intensified and his fans kicked on when Sideswipe's hand stroked the plating over his spark. "I don't know about glowing, but um, I managed to offline Slingshot the other day."

"Doing what?" Sideswipe asked, running one finger along the seam that ran up and down the jet's midline. "You weren't fighting, were you?"

Fireflight shook his head. "No, when we merged. I don't know about glowing. But all the stuff about carriers being more sensitive is true." He shivered, letting his EM field flare to lap against Sideswipe's.

"Really?" Sideswipe smiled. His hand dropped to trace the lower edge of Fireflight's chest plates, just above his waist. "How much more sensitve?"

Fireflight's wings twitched, and the smile on his face changed from pleased by the attention to downright sultry. "You wanna find out?"

It was Sunstreaker whose engine purred, whose hands clenched almost imperceptibly. Sideswipe caught on to this, aided by his link with his twin, and purred, "Only if you're inviting us both. We like to share."

Sunstreaker's EM field was wrapped tightly around himself, as it usually was; rarely letting anything in other than his twin. The look in those ice-blue optics was nearly hypnotic, though...promising things that Fireflight may not have experienced with other mechs.

Fireflight glanced over at Sunstreaker inquisitively and then stretched on the chair, flaring his wings showily. "I'm used to sharing."

Sunstreaker's optics followed those flaring wings, almost as if they were tracing them. Sideswipe ran his fingers up and down Fireflight's arm, somewhat possessively, and his tone dropped an octave. "Not here. Not unless you want to glitch Red Alert by giving him a hell of a show. Our quarters has a berth big enough for three."

The door to the rec room opened, and Sunstreaker exited, already headed to their quarters whether Fireflight was coming or not. The ideas that were running through his processor were /not/ conducive to public activities, not in the least, and he fed his thoughts and images straight through the bond to Sideswipe, whose hands trembled just a bit before regaining control. "How about it, Flight?"

Fireflight swallowed hard and nodded wordlessly, pulling himself up out of the chair and following Sunstreaker from the word.

Sunstreaker arrived first, and he waited just on the inside of the doorway. His arms were folded, his expression carefully neutral. He knew his reputation; he knew damned well that most of the population of the Ark only went with him because of his brother. Sunstreaker was known for being violent, perhaps /too/ violent for an Autobot. He didn't give a frag, though. As long as Sideswipe was happy, not much else mattered.

The twins' quarters were two corridors over and a floor down, deeper in the ship than Fireflight usually went, and he glanced around as the door closed behind him. One half of the room was organized but crowded with boxes containing all sorts of things, where the other was almost painfully bare. The berth- two larger singles that had been pushed together and welded- was perpendicular to the entrance, one long side against the back wall.

Sideswipe entered alongside Fireflight, his hand gently guiding the flier inside. Once they'd both entered, he dimmed the lighting and tapped the door pad twice. "Only locked to the outside, Flight; you can leave at any time." He gazed at his brother, a small smile on his face...and pounced. Sideswipe figured that a little foreplay was in order, and in his experience, most mechs liked seeing him on his brother...

Sideswipe's lips locked to Sunstreaker's, his hands gripping the golden warrior's aft and gently pulling upward. Sunny quickly took control of the kiss, slamming his brother against the wall by his shoulders. A low growl echoes in the small room, and Sunstreaker finally broke off, allowing Sides to speak. "Join us?" he said breathlessly.

Fireflight licked his lips, more than a little out of breath himself. The twins were beautiful, and imagining those hands that knew exactly where every sensitive juncture in a flier's wings was located, well... "Can I?" He asked, lifting a hand to trace the transformation seams on Sunstreaker's chest, hesitating with his hands a tiny measure above the frontliner's paint job. Even with Sunstraeker's typically reserved EM field, at that distance he could feel it, arousal pulsating through the Lamborghini's field and a faint echo that might have been Sideswipe.

Fireflight had never been with the twins- there were rumors around the Ark that Air Raid had, once, but Fireflight had never asked and AIr Raid never told. He looked down at Sunstreaker's strong hands, and then back up at his face, waiting for an answer before touching the yellow frontliner.

Sunstreaker nodded once, giving his permission. Smart little flier, he thought. He reached over to grasp the leading edge of Fireflight's wing, wondering if he was wired the same way as those slagging seekers were. Sunstreaker had deliberately teased them before, in the midst of battle no less, with his knowledge of a flier's frame. He moved fully behind the Aerial so that he could get a better grip on /both/ wings, figuring that he'd probably love that.

Hot lips closed around the cabling in Fireflight's neck as Sideswipe licked up the side, moving up to whisper hotly into his audial. "I know you're used to four, but we're a bit more...adventurous than your gestalt leader. What do you have in mind, Flight? How do you like it?"

Fireflight couldn't help but shudder, hand grazing over Sunstreaker's plating as the yellow mech moved around behind him, and he arched, gasping as first one hand, then two were on his wings. He wasn't sure what to do with his hands for a brief second, then Sideswipe was there, and he stroked them down from the sensory horns on Sideswipe's helm, along the back of his neck, tracing the seams in his back armor. "I like it /all/." He said eagerly. "Please- whatever you want!" He squirmed.

"Like it all, you say." Sunstreaker purred in that deep voice, almost a growl. "Don't tempt me, Fireflight. I'm not getting in trouble for hurting you just because you don't know when to stop."

Sideswipe glanced at his brother, but he could tell that he was in control of himself- for now anyway. He couldn't sense a desire to harm the Aerialbot, and Sunny knew that he was carrying, wouldn't intentionally harm the bitlets.

Sideswipe dropped to his knees, nuzzling Fireflight's interface paneling insistently. "I've heard things about carriers, that you run hot and taste sweeter than energon goodies. Can I find out?" Sides' grin was huge, and the want evident in his gaze caused Sunstreaker to tremble just a bit, his hands faltering on Fireflight's wings. The golden twin lowered his lips to the top edges and gently bit down, moving in a slow slide.

Fireflight shivered again. "Bolt - Bolt said it was different. It felt better- go ahead." He smiled at Sideswipe, arching into Sunstreaker's touch, optics a little dazed. "Ooh, that's nice." His interface panel opened with a click, revealing a rapidly pressurizing spike and valve that had already dripped a trickle of lubricant down onto the exterior surfaces of his interface panel.

A soft, wet glossa quickly lapped up what was dripping freely from Fireflight's panel, and Sideswipe's hand joined it, stroking up and down his spike as his lips nibbled at the rim of Flight's valve.  
"Mmmm...was right." he murmured, throwing himself into the task at hand, this time dragging a single finger into Flight's port as he swallowed his spike, almost to the hilt, in a single swift movement.

Suuny gasped aloud, unintentionally biting just a tad harder than he should have, and licked the plating as an apology before he ground his own rapidly heating panel into Flight's aft, his hands still firmly gripping those wings.

"Soon as Sides gets you ready for me, I'm gonna have you." he muttered, nipping hard at Flight's neck cabling. "Then I want you to take him. Don't do it slow- I want you to make him scream."

Fireflight moaned, his knees almost giving out under him, hips jerking involuntarily between the stimulation of his interface array and oh Primus, his wings. "Oh please-" He offlined his optics, not even sure what he was begging for, but more of it, please." His valve clenched and twitched, trying to tighten down on Sideswipe's finger as it bumped already oversensitive nodes. "I don't want it slow either!" Tiny pulses of static sparked between Sideswipe's finger and Fireflight's internal plating, across Sideswipe's cheeks from the nodes on Fireflight's spike.

"Good." Sunny purred, releasing his panel to drag his already hard spike across Fireflight's aft. He watched intently as his twin bobbed his head up and down on Fireflight's spike, getting even more heated at the image before him. "Sides is good at this, isn't he? Sucks spike like no one else. Has plenty of practice, after all; does it for me all the time."

Sideswipe whined around Flight's spike at the words; he loved hearing his twin talk to him like that, and he felt himself grow wet between the thighs. He sucked harder for a moment before drawing off, looking up at the flier with burning lust in his optics.

"I don't want it slow either." he echoed, licking a small trickle of fluid from his lips. "I like it deep, and hard, and preferably now...but you're not ready, are you?" With that, he twisted his fingers in a peculiar rhythm, the pads scraping across several sensory clusters all at once. It stretched some, but Sideswipe knew that it worked on his stoic brother...it would certainly work on Fireflight, as heated as he was now.

Fireflight leaned back against Sunstreaker, almost unable to hold himself up for trying to drive his spike deeper into Sidewipe's talented mouth, to work the questing fingers deeper into his valve. "Ah! Please! Sideswipe!" Fireflight's back arched, pressing him harder against Sunstreaker, EM field flaring even more erratically. "More!"

"You heard him, Sides, give him more." Sunstreaker's voice was low and hot in Fireflight's audial, and he ran his fingertips across the flat planes of Fireflight's wings, looking for the sensory nubs that would really make him lose his footing. Sunny's spike nearly throbbed against Flight's aft, moving in a slightly slick slide between the jet's thighs, getting closer and closer to Fireflight's soaked valve...close enough that Sideswipe glanced up at his twin and lightly pinched the tip, causing the golden frontliner to gasp aloud.

A third finger dipped inside, twisting and scraping along Flight's valve walls. Sideswipe licked the head of Fireflight's spike, lapping up the beads of fluid that told him that this treatment was getting to the flier quite well indeed. "You need it yet, Flight?" he said in a breathless tone between licks. "Or shall I tease you a little more, till you're ready to lose your mind?"

"Ready- ready- ah" Fireflight almost convulsed, valve clenching around the fingers. "Please!" He ground against Sideswipe's hand. "Please!"

Sunstreaker growled at Fireflight's pleading; it got to him so much that he shoved his twin away from Flight's valve, giving him a Look that caused the red twin to whimper loudly in pure lust. "You're pretty when you're begging. Wonder if you're prettier when you've got my spike in you, and you're begging me even more?" Sunstreaker didn't wait for a reply; he simply took Flight's wings in hand again, a slightly differnt grip, and slid into the tight wetness...and it caused him to literally moan out loud.

"Fraggit, Sunny-!" Sideswipe complained, until he saw what his twin was doing. He turned around and bent himself slightly, presenting his soaked entrance to Fireflight. He looked over his shoulder and licked his lips again; the expression on Sunny's face made him want to throw the both of them down and pleasure them until they all three offlined in bliss. Instead, he said softly, "Please, Flight, I wanna feel you in me. Now. Come on. I'm ready for you."

Fireflight groaned again - "Wait - wait, please - needa merge t-too," He shuddered chestplates cracking open even as he reached down to steady himself against Sideswipe, lining up his spike with the frontliner's valve. "Sparkles- 's good for 'em and it feels so good!"

Sunstreaker hissed. "Fine, but I'll go quick." Sunstreaker's endurance wasn't the greatest in a merge, because everything was so intense- the link between him and his partner, plus the link between him and Sides, and then all of that got doubled back /again/...yeah, the overload was spectacular, but it never lasted long. He opened himself slowly, and promptly set a hard, fast pace inside the Aerial, not hard enough to harm, but enough so that Fireflight's wings were pulled just a little with each firm stroke.

Sideswipe was unwilling to wait and simply moved back onto Fireflight's spike, keening at the feel of it on his unprepared and already charged nodes. "Primus!" he cried. He took a brief moment to stabilize his systems and opened himself, knowing that they were all close enough to initiate the merge. "It's gonna be intense." he warned, clenching his valve around Fireflight's spike in a rippling squeeze that nearly made Sides himself cry out from the stimulation.

"Fine - oh Primus- Sunstreaker- Sideswipe!" Fireflight's systems were on the verge of overload, ghost lightning from the high-powered static flicking between their sensory nodes and tendrils of energy reaching out from his overheated spark to brush up against the coronas of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's sparks. "So-!" He overloaded with a high-pitched shout, pumping deeply into Sideswipe's valve as his own clenched around Sunstreaker's spike.

Sunstreaker's systems went into overdrive at the feeling of Fireflight's overload, and he growled possessively, biting down on the back of Flight's neck as he thrust even harder, feeling his own overload dangling just out of his grasp. "You like that, don't you." he hissed, hands sliding up and down those wings, his lips all over the top edges. His hips clanged into Flight, pushing the Aerial into his brother, and his spark flared, wrapping his brother's in its embrace to make a single whole, just for a little while. They cried out, two voices blended into one, and Sunstreaker felt the first twinges of overload brush his sensor net.

"More, more, please, please more," Sideswipe gasped, his legs trembling with the effort to stay upright. His own spark was joined to his twin's, which sent waves and tendrils into Fireflight's, and the intensity was perfect, just perfect. Flight's hard, deep thrusts made him keen; adding Sunny's gentle violence made him want to scream, and his backstrut trembled even as his valve clenched tightly. "Just...a little...oh Fireflight, a little more now..."

The energy backlash of his own overload, reflected back through twinned sensornets pushed Fireflight's own pleasure upwards once again, just as the overload seemed to crest and he clenched his fingers on Sideswipe's hips, fingers digging clumsily into wire bundles and he yanking the red twin harder onto him. His movements were just as fast but harder, and less coordinated as his systems fired randomly, the overload echoing, seeming to go on and on.

Sideswipe cried out /loudly/, stiffening, his hips meeting each hard thrust in nearly perfect rhythm. His valve flooded with hot lubricant, and he shook beneath Fireflight, deliberately sending his overload through the sparkmerge and through his bond with Sunstreaker simultanteously.

That was enough to crack Sunstreaker's control. His hands flew to Fireflight's hips and he held the flier in a nearly crushing grip, dragging him into his own thrusts with a desperate-sounding cry, followed by the rush of transfluid and a bright flash from where their sparks were merged. The golden twin's moans continued through his hard overload, and he kept thrusting a few more times, until his spike had drained itself, his form slumping over Flight's in satiation and more than a little exhaustion.

Sideswipe was twitching in the backlash of his twin's overload, his optics faded nearly white in his pleasure, unable to say a single coherent word other than "Yes, yes...yes!"

Fireflight collapsed against Sideswipe, arms automatically wrapping around the frontliner's waist burying his face in the juncture of the frontliner's head and neck even as he pants, fans cycling wildly to try and cool himself down, valve still twitching around Sunstreaker's spike and optics offlined, nearly exhausted and deliciously sated.

Sunstreaker muttered, "What they say about carriers is true. You're staying here this nightcycle." he said, his tone expecting obedience. He withdrew himself from Fireflight, heading toward the 'racks.

Sideswipe had no such compunctions, evidently not caring at the moment. "That was good." he simply said, a grin on his face. "Wanna do /that/ again." The sound of running water and cleanser could be heard from the washracks as Sunstreaker likely began checking himself for errant paint streaks from their joining.

Fireflight snuggled down closer against Sideswipe. "'Sposed to go back to medbay." He muttered under his breath. "Don't wanna, locked up all bymyself, it's awful."

Sideswipe ran his fingertips over Flight's helm. "Then stay here. Just tell Ratch you fell into recharge after getting your processor 'faced half to oblivion. He'll live. He might yell at you, or bash you in the head with a wrench, but it's not like he'll shoot you or something."

Sunstreaker was still iin the 'racks, a soft cursing coming from that direction. "Damned white paint." he said, loudly enough for Flight to hear.

"Mmm." Fireflight murmured sleepily. "Fix it tomorrow?" He tilted his helm into Sideswipe's hand before stilling again. "Sorry."

"We'll fx it tomorrow." soothed Sideswipe, who was fast approaching recharge himself. He figured Sunny would make it soon...or not, as the case may be. He cuddled up close to Fireflight, liking the feel of warm jet in his arms.

Sunstreaker eventually exited the 'racks, dried and polished to perfection. He observed the recharging Aerialbot and his twin...taking up the vast majority of the berth. His handsome face twisted into an unlovely frown, and he nudged the pair. "Move. Move the frag /over/, so I can lay here too. My berth."

Fireflight onlined his optics again, and looked blearily up at Sunstreaker before reluctantly letting go of Sideswipe. "I really should go." He sat up. "Uh oh." He flicked his wings nervously. "Ratchet paged me already. Twice. Oh no! I've got to get back there now!"

Sunstreaker grunted. "Fine. Just will you /please/ move over o I can get some rest? I have patrol tomorrow!" Sideswipe gave his twin a dirty look; he was being remarkably insensitive considering what they'd all shared just moments ago, but Sunstreaker ignored Sideswipe and rolled over, away from the two.

"Sorry, Flight." Sideswipe muttered. "Want me to go with, to Ratchet?"

Fireflight stretched, uncramping one wing from where Sideswipe had been laying partially on it, then shook his head and sighed. "Better not. I'm already in enough trouble." He stood up, standing by the berth a little awkwardly. "Um, thanks? That was really nice." He said lamely.

Sunstreaker ignored Fireflight, causing Sideswipe to literally facepalm. "It was. I enjoyed it. You were...nice." Sunstreaker spoke then, in an irritated tone. "Shut the slag /up/, Sides. It was only 'facing, not a fragging bonding."

Sideswipe flickered his optics in annoyance, and shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno what bit him on the aft. Sorry, luck with Ratch"

"Thanks," Fireflight said, sounding uncertain, and turned to leave, heading out of the twins' quarters and down to the elevator that would take him back to the utility level where medbay was located.


	6. Chapter 6

Ratchet looked him up and down. "I don't want to know who you were with, do I, Fireflight?"

Fireflight glanced down. Sideswipe's red wasn't quite the same shade as his own, but Sunstreaker's golden yellow was pretty unmistakable. Oh no! "Um, I forgot, and they were-"

"I have better things to do than deal with disciplinary issues." Ratchet thumped a berth with his wrench. "So don't make me /have/ to deal with them. If you'd gotten back on time, you'd have had time to wash, but as it is, I was supposed to get off my shift three breems ago and your interface life is /not/ a medical emergency." He leaned forward to pull the sensor patch off Fireflight's chestplates, sticking it in his scanner even as he pointed towards isolation.

Fireflight's wings drooped slightly; he'd wanted the racks, but he figured he could get to that later. "Can I at least have a cloth dipped in solvent?" he asked, hurrying into the isolation room. He was still tired, and looked on the cabinet for the half-cube he'd left there; he was hungry again already. Someone had also put another pair of full cubes on the back of the counter.

Ratchet flickered his optics in irritation and threw a damp cloth at Fireflight before shutting the door. Flight smiled in relief, at least he could clean himself off a little bit before trying to recharge.

He scrubbed at the paint marks he could see and reach – he was fairly sure Sunny's paint showed up more on his aft and back, but there wasn't anything he could do about that himself. Eventually, everything he could reach was buffed out, and he sat down on the edge of the berth to finish off the cube from earlier. The taste seemed... less bad, although it certainly wasn't good, either. Maybe he was getting used to it. That only took a breem, and he lay down carefully on the berth, petting his chest gently and offlining his optics and trying to ignore how empty the dark room felt around him.

Recharge was a long time coming.

* * *

"I'm serious, Warp, go to Hook. That's an order. I'm fragging tired of smelling your disgusting reprocessed energon." Thundercracker said.

Skywarp shook his head. "It's just a virus or something." He glared miserably at the puddle of energon on the floor that had recently been residing in his tank.

"If it's just a virus, he'll upload the patch to you and you can stop purging all over our quarters." Thundercracker said with an exasperated rev of his engine.

"You can't order me...wait, yeah you can. Screamer's not here." Skywarp muttered disgustedly. "Look, give me a few cycles. Let this pass." He really, really didn't want to go to Hook, because Hook was a slagging bastard.

Thundercracker flickered his optics and threw his hands into the air in resignation. "Fine. But /you/ are cleaning this slag up, not me. And no more energon in our quarters till you quit purging everyfraggingwhere." His optics narrowed as he just /looked/ at Skywarp. "If you don't quit soon, I /will/ haul your aft in myself. I'm not gonna get shot out of the sky because my wingmate's too busy purging his rations to notice that we're being shot at."

Skywarp responded with a purely human gesture and began wiping the mess up, grumbling the entire time.

Thundercracker stomped out of their quarters. The door shut behind him with a decisive whoosh.

* * *

Skyfire flexed his wings, a trifle impatient as he waited for Silverbolt to answer the door. He'd come to drop off the report from his latest patrol in person, rather than emailing it, for no particular reason. Now that he was standing in the corridor outside the Aerials' hanger, it seemed more than a little bit silly.

"What do you want?" The door slid open to reveal Slingshot - grumpy and defensive as usual. "If it's more slag about Fireflight, take it somewhere else, I'm sick of hearing it. Seriously, just because we're brothers doesn't mean I don't think he's behaving like a total aft!"

Skyfire just stared for a moment. "No, it's not about him at all, Slingshot. I'm here to see Silverbolt. I have something for him."

Slingshot snorted disgustedly. "Fine, whatever." He swiveled his head to shout behind him. "Bolt! Skyfire's here to see you!" He looked back at the shuttle. "Is it important?" Skyfire shook his head quickly, wondering if there ever a time that Slingshot /wasn't/ so irritable.

Silverbolt came to the door a moment later, looking somewhat tired and more than a bit aggravated. "Yes, Skyfire?" he said. His tone was warm, though, and he had a smile for Skyfire. Slingshot opened his mouth to say something, but Silverbolt laid a hand on his arm in warning, causing Slingshot to storm off in a huff, muttering something dire under his breath. Silverbolt just flickered his optics at his brother, stepping into the hall for some privacy.

Skyfire shook his head. "I just wanted to give you this-" he held out the datapad. "And apologize for not taking more of the patrols. I'm still only flying one to every three or four the rest of you are flying."

"It's alright. Silverbolt smiled. "Prowl is going to re-work the ground patrols and then he and I can re-route the air patrols on a more even basis, but it's only for a few months. Fireflight's range isn't as long as yours or mine, but he covered more ground than the rest of us normally because his sensors are /meant/ for that sort of flying."

Skyfire nodded. "How are you going to handle things once his sparklings are activated? Or, I'm sorry, that's none of my business, forgive me. I have no right to ask."

Silverbolt shook his head. "No, it's all right, that's a fair question, all things considered. I don't really know yet." He laughed nervously. "Ratchet's given Fireflight a stack of datapads that's as tall as Carly, but I haven't had time to read them yet. I've never even /seen/ a sparkling. I know we'll need to change his schedule and duties but I don't know how, yet."

Skyfire nodded, understanding completely. Sparklings having sparklings... "Well, I'm sure there's bots you can talk to about that, and at least Fireflight has the four of you to help him. Is he going to let Ratchet and Wheeljack accelerate their growth? Sparklings are /fragile/ when they're new."

Silverbolt pursed his lips together firmly. "I...have no idea." Silverbolt hadn't even known that was possible.

"Our armor can take a hit from a laser. A sparkling cannot." Skyfire said quietly.

Silverbolt frowned, and nodded. "We'll keep them safe. Whatever it takes."

* * *

"Mechs." Jazz dropped out of a ceiling vent onto a box in storage room 18B, currently home to Lambo Distilling, Inc. Sideswipe stifled a yelp and leaned forward, partially blocking the steaming still from Jazz's view, at least in theory. Sunstreaker turned to face the special ops chief with a bored expression on his faceplates. "I hear you got up to a little fun in the rec room last night. A little explicitly forbidden on pain of brig time fun, even."

Sunstreaker's lip curled, and he said absolutely nothing, only shrugging one shoulder. Sideswipe almost yelped; yes, Jazz knew about this little project, he'd help HIDE it in fact, but fragging Fireflight...yeah, it seemed that Jazz was /not/ onboard for that little event.

"He came on to /us/!" Sideswipe said indignantly. "We were sittin' there, minding our own business, and here he comes, all rubbing up on me!"

"No excuse." Jazz said, still smiling. "You and him aren't s'posed to be near each other, let alone be fragging."

Sunstreaker tilted his head. "Fine. Whatever. Now do you want that batch in one orn, or three?"

Sideswipe just slapped his forehead with his hand, wondering just what had gotten into his twin lately. He was gonna run his mouth straight into the brig.

"Three's fine, 'less things stay quiet. Then I think we might wanna celebrate something like Oil Appreciation day or something, break up the monotony." Jazz said smoothly. "And you leave Fireflight alone, I don't care who started it. He comes to you again, you walk away, hear? Silverbolt'll take care of Flighty."

Sunstreaker growled. "Wasn't /that/ good in the berth. Told you he'd get us in trouble, Sides."

"We will, Jazz, I promise. No more jets for us, got it! Well, not in the berth, anyway." Sideswipe grinned winningly.

Jazz nodded. "You remember that, we'll be just fine. And the usual delivery arrangements on that high grade, okay?"

"Okay by me." Sideswipe said, sweating a little. Jazz didn't make threats because he didn't have to, but it was becoming eminently clear that the little flyer was /off limits/.

As Jazz left, Sides turned to his twin with a resigned expression on his face. "Well, slag. Flight was a good frag, too."

Sunstreaker shrugged again, not really caring one way or the other. "There's others. Plenty of them. Matter of fact, why don't you comm Blue for tonight?"

Sideswipe grinned as he began to do just that.

* * *

Starscream was getting very impatient, locked down here in the brig with no one but a very silent Beachcomber to watch over him. The mech was sitting in a chair, pointed away from Starscream's cell, relying on the security camera positioned in the ceiling of the cell to keep an actual optic on the SIC.

"I demand to be allowed access to a comm to speak with my commanding officer!" Starscream declared. Beachcomber turned his head only slightly, then pointedly went back to the datapad in his hand, ignoring the demand.

"Are you /ignoring/ me?!" Starscream screeched.

"'s a matter of fact, he is, Screamer." Ironhide said with a smirk. "Orders. Thanks 'Comber. You can go, I'll take care 'o things down here." The blue and white minibot flashed Ironhide a smile, dropped his feet off the console, and scuttled for the exit. Starscream watched him leave.

"And what do /you/ want, other than to torment me?" He flopped dramatically on the narrow berth, supressing a yelp as he banked his wing on the wall.

"That is a thought." Ironhide said, smirking. "Lucky for you we Autobots got rules against that sort o' thing." He eased himself into the chair, which creaked ominously under his weight.

"Oh, yes, I am certainly the /luckiest/ mech in both factions." Starscream spat. "I am so /lucky/, in fact, that I am /overfraggingjoyed/ to be here, experiencing your grand hospitality."

Ironhide snorted, flickering his optics at Starscream's sarcasm. "This is gonna be a long shift, ain't it." he said rhetorically.

"Frag off, Autoscum. Longer for me, locked in this prison, and for what?" Starscream sneered. "Prisoner of war, I get that, but that's not the reason you carried me off. You all want some twisted kind of vengeance on me for taking /advantage/ of your little piece of shareware. Well, I will tell you something. You are /wrong/. You can do what you like, but know that you're out of your fragging processor if you think that /I/ had to force that little jetling to 'face me."

Ironhide rolled his optics. "Is two hours of you shutting up too much to hope for?"

Starscream glared. "Yes. In fact, I think we should discuss the myriad ways in which your brig is COMPLETELY INSUFFICIENT for appropriate prisoner treatment! I demand to speak to Prime RIGHT NOW!"

* * *

The door creaked open, and Fireflight onlined his optics from a half doze.

"Hi Fireflight. Ratchet wanted me to put this back on you when I came on shift." FIrst Aid held out the monitor patch.

Fireflight heaved a sigh. "Can you let me out after that?"

"Sorry, Flight." First Aid shook his head and patted the jet on the arm. "Ratchet said not till your shift starts. But your energy readings look much better!"

Fireflight cracked a small smile. "So it worked?"

"What worked?" First Aid asked, curious.

"Merging outside my gestalt." Fireflight said nonchalantly. "Needed different energy for the sparkles, Ratchet said."

"I.. Oh." First Aid replied, a bit flustered.

"Can you /please/ let me out a little bit early? I just wanna use the racks. Please?" Flight pleaded.

First Aid finally shook his helm, unwilling to risk Ratchet's wrath. "When Ratchet comes on-shift, you can ask him then. If I let you out early, though – I'm sorry, Fireflight, I can't." First Aid smiled apologetically. Fireflight looked miserable, but nodded; he understood that, even if he didn't like it.

First Aid closed the door, locking it behind him, and Fireflight sighed loudly and dramatically. He checked his internal chronometer- way too long till his shift began. He started counting the paint specks on the ceiling again...

* * *

"We have got to get that fragging seeker out of the brig before I open the cell and blast him myself." Ironhide said to Prime after his shift was over. "Two hours of his screeching voice is torture and should be against the Iaconian Rules of War, if ya ask me."

Optimus Prime pinched the bridge of his nose, just above his mask. "And what do you suggest we do with him? By those rules, we /should/ be sending him back to Iacon to stand trial for his part in the war, but since we lack access to a functional space bridge and the Iaconian Council of Justice no longer exists, we're in a bit of a quandary. Frankly, I'd expected his trinemates to have broken him out by now."

Ironhide rumbled. "I don't care, but sitting down there listening to that slagger.. the things he /said/, Prime, you have no idea. Go watch the tape, I'm sure Red Alert's secretly copied it to his stash of viewing material. I didn't need to know some of those things about the kid!"

"He's trying to shock you, to get a reaction out of you." Prime said patiently. "Don't let him."

Ironhide looked somewhat guilty at this. "I tried, I did. But...you c'n imagine. That mech is rotten right down to his black spark, I tell you."

Optimus Prime looked thoughtful at that. "Not completely, Ironhide, or else he would not have asked about Fireflight's sparklings. Something inside him cares, at least a little."

Ironhide looked unconvinced, but gave Optimus a nod as he stumped out of the Prime's office.

Optimus rubbed the bridge of his nose again, cursing his processor ache, and punched the button on the comm to hail the Nemesis as soon as Ironhide stomped off. "Optimus Prime to Megatron. Answer your damn comm."

After a long moment of waiting, Megatron's silver helm came into view on the screen. "What do you want, Prime?" he said, without preamble. "My time is not to be wasted with petty little squabbles such as the ones you call me with on this channel."

"I thought you /might/ want your second in command back, Megatron. Otherwise I'm afraid I'll be forced to hold a trial for him here, and under war-time statutes, I am afraid we would be forced to execute him."

"What a pity." The smirk on Megatron's face was unmistakable. "I am sure that he is /quite/ comfortable in your brig." Megatron was calling Prime's bluff- to his knowledge, Optimus Prime had /never/ executed /anyone/, not even someone as putatively bad as Starscream. "I'm sure that his presence has lifted /all/ your spirits, no?"

"Do you want him back or not?" Optimus Prime growled. He glared at Megatron for a moment and then sighed. "Look, what will it take to get him out of our brig and off my hands before my security chief gives himself a glitch over the slagger?"

Megatron's smile widened at this. "Oh, you /aren't/ enjoying his commentary and company? What a /pity/." he repeated, liking to watch Prime squirm. "I suppose..." and he paused dramatically, almost as if thinking very hard, "...I suppose that we could take him off your hands for the small gift of fifty cubes of energon. After all, /you/ have him now, and I don't. Call it...an adoption fee." His gaze hardened at this, and he waited for the response.

Optimus Prime facepalmed. "Fine. Where do you want your energon and Primus-damned seeker delivered?"

"The usual place. Say in a couple joor; I must assemble an appropriate honor guard." With that, Megatron cut the connection, before Optimus Prime had the chance to see the warlord laughing maniacally behind the comm center.

* * *

Fireflight looked up at the side of the Ark and groaned. Behind him, Windcharger hummed quietly as he pushed his scrubber back and forth.

"This is going to take /forever!/" Fireflight said.

"Pretty much. And then we just start over." Windcharger said. "Makes doing patrols look pretty glamorous, doesn't it?" The two mechs stood on the upper exposed shell of the Ark, armed with soapy water, rust remover, paint, and scrubbing tools, sent out by Grapple to clean the top of the Ark and inspect the hull that couldn't be reached by the regular maintenance crew, none of whom were flyers.

"Yes." Fireflight said flatly, holding his bucket like it was filled with pure acid. "I think I'd rather be on monitor duty." he mumbled, but he also knew that wasn't true. At least here he was outdoors, under the sky, and not trapped in a small room...which was undoubtedly why he'd been assigned this duty. That, and it was scutwork for those on punishment, and Flight certainly was that. "So I just clean and polish up and down, and when I get done, I do it over?" he repeated doubtfully.

Windcharger laughed. "Not this shift. We probably won't get more than a quarter of this section done, anyway."

Fireflight nodded, and put his head back down, rubbing his chestplates for a second before moving to go dip his broom in the water and scrub more at a mossy section of the ship's hull. "Do you do this all the time?"

"Nah, but Grapple rotates who gets it. It's usually me and Powerglide, cuz we can catch ourselves if we go off the side and Sideswipe's usually patrolling. Blades helps once in a while, but he grumbles so much it's not worth it and his team isn't here very much anyway. Chuck those rocks off the side, they're too big to leave up here, stuff'll just get caught in them."

Fireflight nodded and bent over to pick up the rock when there was a sharp pain in his chest, and he found himself on his knees, staring at the ark's hull from much closer range.

"Are you all right?" Windcharger said, sounding very far away.

"I...I don't know. Feels weird in my spark. Kinda hurts, I don't know what it is?"

"Don't worry, Flight." He knew Flight was carrying, and that it was his first time. He hurriedly commed medbay, where a very alarmed First Aid answered the call. Windcharger looked over at Fireflight, who was rubbing his chestplates anxiously. "Can they please hurry?"

"My sparkles, 'Charger- feels wrong in there." Fireflight insisted.

"First Aid is on the way. They'll be fine." Windcharger soothed, hoping he wasn't lying to the younger mech.

Fireflight leaned forward, offlining his optics and curling over slightly as it felt like someone was squeezing his spark, a sharp, sudden pain that he had never felt before striking him.

* * *

"What's going on?" Trailbreaker, accompanied by Prowl and the Unicron-damned Lamboghini twins filed into the detention center. Starscream sat up on the berth, pointedly ignoring Hound where he sat at the security console.

"You're being returned to your faction." Prowl said. "Stand up and put your hands in front of you."

"Finally! I knew Megatron needed my expertise and could not function without it for much longer!" Starscream snapped, almost willing to dance a jig if it could get him out of this hole. He needed the sky and a decent frag, in that order. He put his hands in front of him, glaring at those slagging twins the entire time.

Hound deactivated the energon bars, and Starscream stepped through, his wings twitching at the thought of freedom. Prowl attached cuffs to Starscream's wrists and marched him out of the detention area, the twins taking rear guard in case Starscream tried anything funny.

Prowl just let Starscream ramble on; it would put them at a significant tactical disadvantage to let Starscream know that Prime had /paid/ Megatron to take him back.

–

It was not First Aid that arrived, it was a very cranky-looking Ratchet, who looked to have been woken from a well-deserved nap. Fireflight was doubled over on the deck, his hands over his spark. "Hurts." he whined, his optics wide with fear.

"Sit up." Ratchet said gruffly, although his hand on Fireflight's shoulder was careful as he attempted to uncurl the jet. "I need to scan you."

"It hurts!" Fireflight said, sitting up slightly, shuddering as another wave of pain bit through his spark. "Please, there's something wrong!" Ratchet ran the scanner over him with a frown, although his features smoothed out slightly.

"Alright- your sparklets are fine, but I want you in med bay where I can monitor this. Think you can walk?" Ratchet pulled Fireflight's hand away from his spark to draw the Aerialbot's arm over his shoulder.

"I can try but why does it hurt?!" Fireflight cringed, panting.

"Unless you want me to open you up right here, which I /don't/ recommend, I can't tell you that. But their spin rate and everything is /fine/, Fireflight. You need to move so we can see them in a safe place." Windcharger still looked rather concerned, but Ratchet nodded sharply at him and he disappeared, over to where he'd left his cleaning supplies. "Up, Fireflight." Ratchet ordered. "You're afraid, which makes it hurt more. Calm down, your sparklets are fine."

Whimpering just a little bit and leaning on Ratchet, Fireflight rose to his feet, the pain in his chest feeling almost like it was tearing, digging into something. He forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, only stopping a few times on the way to medbay to rest. Ratchet waited (relatively) patiently through this, with only one impatient grumble.

"Almost there." Ratchet said grimly. "Down the hall, and we've made it." His tone was gruff.

"I want Bolt," Fireflight whined. First Aid met them in the hall and put Fireflight's other arm over his shoulder, the two medics more or less carrying him the last few meters and lifting him up on to a berth where he curled into a ball on his side, shivering.

"Should I start a painkiller drip?" FIrst Aid asked in a low voice.

"No, we can't do anything that's going to effect his spark's rate of spin right now." Ratchet replied. "Start a drip, medical grade, but hold off on the painkillers till we've gotten a look at things. Alright, Fireflight, I need you to open up for me."

Fireflight took a deep breath and straightened up on the berth, gritting his denta as he forced his chestplates to open and baring his spark casing to Ratchet.

Ratchet turned on a small screen attached to camera probe and studied it for a few minutes before hooking it to a screen attached to the berth, angled so that Fireflight could see what was going on in his own chest. "Fireflight, calm down. They're starting to implant, that's all. It's a normal part of development and nothing is wrong. This won't take long – just a joor or so."

"But it hurts!" Fireflight said, peering at the screen. "Are you sure they're s'posed to just sit there and not move anymore? They don't look very sparkly like that."

Ratchet sighed. "Yes, I am sure. They have to implant for then to form the casings."

Flight gave a small, pained smile. "Oh! The eggs!"

Ratchet scowled. "Spark casings. Look, you're staying here where I can monitor you until they're done. You should be able to go spend time with your gestalt by next shift." He beckoned First Aid over from where the Protectobot was hovering anxiously with the drip. "Start that drip and then you can go back to your inventory."

* * *

Thundercracker and Astrotrain were waiting at the meeting point that Megatron and Prime had agreed on when the Autobots rolled up, Prime transforming to release Starscream from his trailer and Hoist and Ironhide rocking impatiently on their tires as they waited for the cubes they carried to be unloaded.

Starscream eyed the energon transfer and screeched, "What in the boiling Pit is this?"

Thundercracker smirked. "It seems you annoyed the Autoscum enough that they were willing to /pay us/ to get you out of their brig!"

"/What/? Megatron didn't negotiate for me? Try for my release?"

"Not in the least." the dark blue Seeker said with just a hint of glee. "Now get your aft over here, I have to give back those cuffs. You don't need 'em anyway, you have two more sets under your berth pad."

Astrotrain guffawed loudly at this, and the Autobots shook their heads...that was way, /way/ more than they needed to know about the Decepticon SIC.

Thundercracker released the bonds and Starscream rubbed his wrists, wings flaring at Ironhide as he literally chucked the cuffs in his direction. He then disdained his trinemate and the triplechanger, taking off into the sky without another word.

"Later, Autodorks." Astrotrain smirked as he took off, his thrusters making the ground rumble under everyone's feet. Thundercracker just gave a long-suffering sigh and transformed to take to the sky as well.

* * *

The last few hours had been the most miserable of Fireflight's life (possibly even including the time that Menasor ripped one of his wings off). Ratchet had installed an additional monitor and let him close his chest plates, although it was attached by a cable and he couldn't move around much without dislodging it, the tiny camera displaying the inside of his spark chamber and the two proto-sparks orbiting more and more slowly on a screen next to his berth. He wished this was over, he wished his brothers were there, but mostly he wished it would just stop hurting. Not to mention all the wires and slag. That was almost worse than the pain was, now.

Finally, the door opened, though, and Silverbolt rushed in. "Flight! Are you alright? I heard you collapsed during your shift!"

Fireflight looked up, and smiled despite his discomfort and the sheer amount of /stuff/ Ratchet had attached to him. "Hi, Bolt. Yeah, I did, but I'm supposed to be okay." he says, trying to be reassuring. "Ratchet says it's normal for me to hurt a little. And that I shouldn't be scared."

Silverbolt looked very concerned anyway, being a worrier by nature. "These machines would not be here if you were completely okay." he said gently, looking at readouts that he didn't exactly understand. "What did he say?"

"That my eggs are gonna form as soon at the sparkles stop sparkling and settle themselves inside there." Fireflight explains promptly, in true Fireflight fashion. "But I don't know why I'm still here, 'cept it still hurts because of the settling." He frowned at that, feeling another deep twinge. The pain reliever helped, but did not take it ALL away; the stretchy feeling was still there, and that felt WEIRD in his spark chamber.

Silverbolt rubbed Flight's wings soothingly, trying to relax his brother as best he could. "I'm here now, Flight. I think you'll be okay. And your...your sparkles will be too. Ratchet is a great medic. He won't let anything happen to you."

* * *

"So what's happened while I was gone?" Starscream asked Thundercracker as they strode down the hall from the Nemesis's undersea elevator. "And where's Skywarp?"

Thundercracker rolled his optics. "Hiding from Hook. And no, don't ask me why, that's /his/ slag and he can tell you himself."

Starscream flicked his wings in annoyance. "I bet the stupid little slagger's thinking Hook is trying to dismantle him for spare parts again. Just because he threatened to when Skywarp re-labeled all the supplies, including the drugs, means nothing..." He shrugged.

When Starscream entered his quarters, the faint reek of reprocessed energon hit his olfactories. "Ugh, Thundercracker, what in the frag happened..."

A fillthy cloth, used to clean up one of Skywarp's messes, lay limply in the corner of the room. Thundercracker pursed his lips in a thin line. "That is /it/." he said, furious.  
Starscream looked questioningly at him.  
"Hook's not going to /have/ to dismantle him for parts, I'm going to do it myself. Fuel processing glitch my aft!" Thundercracker groused.

* * *

Fireflight offlined his optics and relaxed into Bolt's touch for a moment before another twinge in his spark signaled another round of the unpleasant stretching, pulling sensation started coming in waves again. He hitched his wings and brought his hand up to rub at his chest again, looking up at Bolt with a piteous expression. "Not again!" This time, it felt different. Spinny, maybe?

Silverbolt paused in his petting. "How long is this gonna go on?" He moved to sit gingerly on the edge of the berth, wrapping his hand around one of Fireflight's and looking up. Ratchet was visible at his desk through the open office door, and First Aid was busy on the other side of the bay. None of the monitors were going off, though, surely they'd know if something was going wrong.

"A few hours," Fireflight panted. "Ratchet said it's normal for twinsparks to take longer." He squeezed Silverbolt's hand in a deathgrip before letting go to rub at his chestplates again. "It feels different now, though- spinny?" he said, just as the monitors exploded with buzzers and alarms. First Aid and Ratchet came running, concerned with the new development.

Ratchet checked the readings and said a few choice words under his breath, the main one being variations on the word "frag".

First Aid was silent, moving courteously around Silverbolt instead of making him leave. "Fireflight, you need to try and calm down." he said softly, adjusting the flow on the drip overhead. "Further stress will only make it hurt worse. Concentrate on your sparklings, how much you want them to be healthy."

Flight bit his lips and nodded, squeezing Silverbolt's hand. "Don't let nothin' happen to them, okay?" he said, looking into Bolt's optics.

"I-I'll try." Silverbolt floundered, not sure what he could do to help.

Ratchet looked at First Aid. "The rate of rotation, spin, and energy consumption is /way/ off. Fireflight, we're going to dial back the painkiller- it shouldn't be interfering, but just in case."

"Something's changed, everything was /fine/ until just now," First Aid said, only slightly frantically.

Fireflight nodded, unable to speak as an odd feeling struck his spark, almost as if it were trembling and trying to escape straight through his chest. He was vaguely aware of Silverbolt adjusting his grip slightly, of Ratchet leaning over to adjust one of the monitor lines, but the world was fuzzy, indistinct, and somehow distant. First Aid did something by his side and the pain redoubled. Fireflight couldn't suppress an agonized keen as fear and pain grabbed hold of his meta.

"This energy pattern doesn't match up!" First Aid said. "I thought the merges were supposed to address that!"

Ratchet facepalmed. "Where is Starscream?"

Silverbolt's optics narrowed and he almost hissed, "What has /that/ got to do with anything? Can you /help/ him? He's /hurting/!"

"Sent back-saw Prime leave-" Flight managed through gritted denta. "Not here anymore."

"Why are you still here?" Ratchet snapped at Silverbolt without looking up from the readings he was taking "Out?"

First Aid was leaning forward to look at the screen in Ratchet's hand, and tapped his mask thoughtfully. "Coder frequencies?"

"Fragging glitched-up flying hunk of tin." Ratchet spat. "Starscream was helping you, however indirectly."

"Helping him? How did he /help/ him?" Silverbolt demanded to know.

"His proximity was assisting Fireflight with this process- his spark energy was still in relative proximity to Fireflight's, which is normal for bonded pairs, which are what most mechs sparking are- he shouldn't have been able to absorb enough energy from a merge to spark in the first place unless there's a bond or something – or in Fireflight's case, his gestalt bond gave him a boost.." First Aid explained.

Fireflight curled over as another world-twisting surge washed over him, this vision going even foggier for a moment. He slumped back against the table.

"What does that mean?!" Silverbolt said urgently. "Flight?! Flight!" The red and white jet on the berth squeezed faintly at his hand but didn't respond other than that.

"He's destabilizing. Aid, get the support cables over here, now!" Ratchet ordered urgently. "Silverbolt, /out!/." He spared a nanoklik to glare at Silverbolt.

Silverbolt stepped back – no one got in Ratchet's way- as the two medics cracked open Fireflight's chestplates, attaching several thick cables to medical access ports on his spark casing.

Fireflight's optics did not online again, though, not immediately. The machine he was hooked to – it looked like some sort uf battery charger with extra readouts- beeped and hummed as it powered up. Fireflight's optics flickered a few times, but remained offline. Ratchet made a satisfied noise though, and leaned back.

Silverbolt's posture was tense, and he couldn't /feel/ Fireflight hardly at /all/. This thought filled him with dread, a cold feeling settling into his chest. First Aid put a soothing hand on his arm.

"Is he going to be okay?" Silverbolt asked.

"Get out of my way and let me work!" Ratchet growled absently, tweaking a setting on the arcane looking machine next to Fireflight's berth. "First Aid, get him out of here /now/."

"He's going to be just fine, Silverbolt. We'll call you as soon as there's any news." First Aid's voice was reassuring and earnest as he gently but firmly guided Silverbolt towards the exit.

* * *

It took them most of a shift to track down Skywarp in the storage rooms in the lowest levels of the Nemesis, and another joor to hit him with one of Soundwave's jammers that kept him from teleporting away.

"What the /frag/." Skywarp whined. He glared at the other two seekers. "What did I do /now/? I mean, this is ridiculous!"

Starscream eyed his younger trinemate critically. Skywarp looked a little rough and worn out. His color was slightly faded, and his optics were unnaturally bright.

"Skywarp, Thundercracker tells me that you've been having a problem recently. Care to explain?" Starscream asked. He put his hands on his hips, looming over Skywarp, and Warp stared up.

"Been purging my tanks a lot, is all." he muttered. "No big deal."

"In our /quarters/, everywhere." Thundercracker said. "I gave him a few cycles to 'get better'. He hasn't. He is /going/ to Hook." Thundercracker folded his arms across his cockpit glass; he was serious.

Starscream eyed Thundercracker and flicked his wings at him, indicating that he should shut up now while he's ahead. "So, Skywarp. Tell /me/ what's really going on."

"Nothing!" The younger seeker glared. "I swear, Starscream, it's just a glitch or something. Maybe I'm allergic to the slagging coal-flavored energon!"

"If it's just a glitch, why haven't you gone to Hook and gotten it FIXED?" Starscream hissed. "Instead of purging all over MY quarters while I was gone!"

Skywarp crossed his arms. "Don't want to, and you can't make me."

Starscream gave a sharp bark of laughter. "That AERIALBOT piece of shareware is more mature than you are, Warp!" He frowned. "You better not be fragging carrying again. You /know/ what HE said last time." Thundercracker glared impassively, nodding in agreement. "The Nemesis is no place to raise sparklings."

"You don't think I don't know that?" Skywarp nearly snarled. "No slag, you two. Sparklings have no place in war! Especially in /this/ faction."

Skywarp's processor stalled. His own words echoed in his meta, and he thought about that "slagging Aerialbot" that Starcream referred to.

"I need to go out. Now." Skywarp said, standing up and staring at the other two Seekers. "Alone. It'll make me feel better, honest."

"No, Skywarp. We have a raid this afternoon, or did you forget? You have to stay here or else old bucket-head will have your aft on a silver platter, and not in the way you like either!" Starscream said with a smirk.

"Shut up, Screamer, you're just mad that he picked me and not you." Skywarp sulked.

Starscream smacked Skywarp on the back of the helm as he stalked past his trinemates. "Don't be an aft. See Hook as soon as we're back from the raid and take care of whatever your slagging problem is. Or I'll make you wish you had!"

* * *

Ratchet frowned through the open door at his normally quiet medbay, now seemingly filled with anxious flyers fussing over their wingmate. Fireflight was proving surprisingly cooperative for once as he tolerated the (reasonably) good natured squabbling and careful jostling by his brothers. In the bay itself, First Aid kept a careful eye on the readouts, and Wheeljack was helping Silverbolt corral Air Raid's natural exuberance to a more manageable level.

"Ratchet, you wanted to update me?" Optimus Prime could move surprisingly quietly for a large mech, and had apparently come in from the seldom-used waiting area next to the CMO's office instead of the main medbay entrance on the far side of the bay.

Ratchet nodded, sinking heavily into the chair behind his desk and gesturing at the chair next to it. "Fireflight's mostly stable, though he's stll on support. I'm keeping him that way overnight or until the sparklings settle in a bit more, whichever happens first. I'll keep him in longer if I have to." Ratchet said grimly. "I hope not."

"Was the lack of a coder what caused this?" Prime said.

"That slagger. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is the one fragging time that I actually wish we had Starscream back here. With his spark signature and EM field nearby, it helped Fireflight stay relatively stable due to the harmonics. This is pretty traumatic for Fireflight, as you can imagine, not to mention his gestalt." He jerked his thumb toward the milling fliers.

Optimus Prime nodded slowly. "Do you believe it's necessary for us to bring Starscream back here?" He frowned. Primus only knew what kind of concession Megatron would demand, not to mention the sheer improbability of Starscream himself cooperating. It was likely a strategic nightmare, but no one wanted Fireflight to die, and the more practical side of him insisted that he save his only aerial forces – and gestalt- at all costs.

Ratchet shook his head. "It shouldn't be. Unbonded carriers are unusual because a single merge with unbonded sparks usually isn't enough to start fission. It happens, sometimes, and it's just inherently somewhat riskier. This is a pretty extreme reaction - possibly because Fireflight is so young. Without a bonded partner, it's going to be a lot harder for his spark to maintain the amount of energy that his sparklings need. Normally an unbonded carrier could stabilize themselves by merging, but Fireflight's main partners are his gestalt, and their spark resonances are too similar to his own to help. Possibly there's interaction between the gestalt coding and the normal spark coding for flyers; there's never been another flighted combiner that we know of." Ratchet looked as if he was taking this as a personal insult.

"Overall, we should be able to handle whatever else his system decides to throw at us. He merged with someone last night, that helped, and once we stabilize him, a regular number of merges should keep him that way, or supplemental power from the support system if that isn't an option." Ratchet snorted. "I can't believe that my medical recommendation is for him to get fragged, but there you go. Another three orns and we can remove the sparklings and put them in a CR chamber until their protoforms are finished, if we have to - I'd rather let them mature to term with him, but if we have to, that's what we'll do." Ratchet scrubbed at his face. "He's got a quartex and a half to go."

Optimus Prime studied his chief medical officer seriously. "I have faith in you, Ratchet, and I know that Fireflight and his gestalt do as well."

Ratchet nodded firmly. "I don't fail often, Optimus. And I don't intend to fail Fireflight or his sparklings."

* * *

Fireflight onlined his optics, his vision somewhat blurry. He saw four concerned faces looming over him."Hi, guys. Ratchet let you in?"

Even Slingshot looked somewhat concerned, though he hid it quickly with a scowl. "Why do you gotta frag up my off-shift with this slag, Flight?" he asked. Fireflight automatically translated that from Slingshot to mean "Quit worrying me, you slagger."

Skydive held Fireflight's hand . Air Raid perched on the edge of the berth next to him, jostling Skydive. "Ratchet said they might have to take your sparklets out early and put them in something!"

"CR chamber." Skydive supplied. He stroked the top of Flight's hand, glad that he could /feel/ him again. The relief they all felt echoed through the gestalt bond.

Silverbolt stood near the head of the bed, and he leaned over to speak, stroking Fireflight's nosecone gently. "Hang in there, okay Flighty? Ratchet's going to kick us out pretty soon, but we'll come back. You have to stay here for a few cycles because you need the support for awhile longer. Maybe not even that long; it depends on how better you get, okay?" Fireflight just nodded; he was too tired to argue. He slid his right hand from Skydive's grip and placed it over his chest, where his sparkles lay.


	7. Chapter 7

_Revised/edited June 2013 to write myself out of a corner._

* * *

/What the SLAG are you doing, Warp? Get back here and COVER MY AFT!/ Starscream shrieked into the comm as laserfire and rockets peppered the sky around him from the ground below. He rolled, snapping off a shot at the white jet he was dogging only to be forced to break off when another of the Aerialbrat's brothers managed to get a target lock on him momentarily. Thundercracker was busy harassing a group of minibots, but now Skywarp was nowhere to be seen.

Skywarp ignored his trineleader's order, looking for a particular Aerialbot. One that sort of looked like him, if you squinted and turned your head sideways. He spotted Skydive just ahead, twisting in midair to avoid laser fire from Dirge.

/Need to borrow an Airlybot, boss, be right back!/ Skywarp shouted back, diving to get a target lock on the Autobot flier. He gathered energy for a double-jump as he transformed, not something he liked doing often because of the drain, and went for here to there in a blink, wrapping his arms around the jet and jumping out again just as it registered that the Aerialbot he'd grabbed wasn't the one he'd aimed for was /white/.

"What the pit?" Slingshot yelped into the open channel. /Bolt, Raid, Dive! Get him the slag **OFF **me, he's like a slagging ton of lead!/ His voice cut off in a clash of static.

* * *

The Ark was nearly deserted, with a skeleton crew running operations and the medics preparing medbay for the inevitable injuries that came in after any battle. Fireflight wandered the corridors with no particular destination. Ratchet had ordered him out almost absently, with orders to take it easy and stay out from underfoot until all of the post-battle repairs were done. He wasn't sure where to go, but he didn't really want to be alone, either. The gestalt bond hummed distantly- the battle was in southern California, far enough that he could only get a distant tinge of his brothers' emotions as they fought.

Fireflight sighed, wondering if it would be okay if he took a walk outside for a little while. Probably not, though...they hadn't told him he couldn't, but they hadn't told him that he could, either, and the Ark was on alert even if he /was/ off duty. That made a lot of difference, and Flight was sick of being in trouble. He wanted out of med bay and back in the hangar as soon as possible.

Steeljaw crept by, flicking his tail and smiling at Fireflight as he headed...wherever he was going. Blaster was manning communications today, and apparently his cassettes were helping out too. Fireflight smiled and nodded...then wondered if Wheeljack was in his lab, or if they'd needed him in the field.

Only one way to find out, Flight thought. He headed down to the labs, hoping that the inventor wasn't too busy to talk. Fireflight was feeling pretty alone, what with the gestalt bond being stretched by distance, and Wheeljack was always nice to talk to.

"Jack? Are you around?" The door to the lab was closed but opened at a ping to the controller.

* * *

Slingshot onlined his optics to discover... absolutely nothing.

"Oops, sorry about that." A slightly familiar voice said, and there was a hand on the joint of his shoulder- hadn't he hit the ground in his alt ?- flipping him over. His entire skidplate ached, and his landing gear didn't bear thinking about. "Hit you a little harder then I meant to. You okay?"

Skywarp. The voice belonged to Skywarp, and the purple and black seeker was studying him from close range with every evidence of actual apology in his voice and field. Slingshot glared.

"I'm not going to tell you anything, Decepticon!" He shoved his fingers under the edge of his visor, trying to dislodge a rock that had gotten wedged under it. "Ugh. What the frag is wrong with you!? Usually you just try and SHOOT us, not try some sort of stupid... teleporting jet judo!"

Skywarp snorted. "Not trying to hurt you, or you'd be splattered on the ground. I have a plan, and I need you to help me."

Slingshot's optics narrowed. "You have got to be kidding me. Me, help /you/? Why?"

Skywarp stood up from where he'd been crouching, a frown on his face. "Because you'll save somebody's life if you do."

"Quit fragging around and let me get back in the air." Slingshot said. "Is this some kind of stupid-"

"It's got nothing to do with- with Megatron, or the Decepticons, or earth- and you and your brothers are the only ones who can do this. I need a yes or no, and I'll contact you again to tell you the rest- we have to get back fast or someone'll notice I'm missing." Skywarp cut him off and muttered a curse as he looekd up. "We don't have much time. The petrorabbit died, okay? I need you to bring Ratchet out so he can help me. Someplace neutral. Or the engineer, your creator, he could too. You name it."

"Why should I help you? /YOUR/ trineleader sparked up my brother!" Slingshot growled. /Guys, he's acting crazier than normal, could use some support here!/ Silverbolt sent a blip of acknowlegement, but up above, he could see that they were too shorthanded to help immediately, especially with Fireflight absent too.

"Yeah, I know, that's why this'll work. Just do it, okay? Here, give me cooridnates on this frequency-" He pinged Slignshot with a set of numbers. "Swap 'em x for y and use civilian time, that usually throws Soundwave off for a bit."

"I still don't get why you think I'm going to help you-" Slingshot uncrossed his arms and flicked his hands, trying to intiate his transformation sequence so he could get out of there. "Ugh, my landing gear's fragged up, you ass!"

"Sorry about that- oh slag, there's Ramjet. Look, just stay down and I'll get him off your aft." Skywarp said. "Remember what I said! Tell your medic!" He transformed and shot off into the air again, leaving Slingshot staring after him.

* * *

"Back here, Fireflight, an' watch out for that cabling on the floor...don't want you to trip!" Wheeljack's cheerful voice greeted Fireflight, and the dull flash of his helm-fins gave Fireflight some small idea of where the mech was. He was hip-deep in a large machine of some sort, and Fireflight frowned.

"Are you /sure/ I should be in here right now? Are you gonna be okay in there?"

"It's fine, Fireflight - not working on anything explosive, just tinkering a bit with an old project." Wheeljack climbed out of the machinery he was working on, knocking a few parts off a ledge and onto the floor with a clatter. Fireflight ducked instinctively, but the noise died away with no sign of any actual explosions, and he looked up again.

"What /is/ it?" He asked.

"A metal recycler and extruder." Wheeljack explained. "You put old, used, or damaged bits in the side, here, and they come out as metal rods on the other side, ready to be used for other things. Wire, forged into plating for the Ark, all sorts of things. Pretty basic, really, by our standards. We didn't have one already because it's so heavy and no one ever expected the Ark to be so far away from a resupply for so long. But it works, and we need it."

Fireflight nodded eagerly. Wheeljack never tried to confuse him; he always explained things just so he could understand them, and if he didn't, Jack was more than willing to make sure that he did, even if he had to tell it ten times.

He loved Wheeljack, kind of like how he felt about his twins, come to think of it. It was family.

"Wheeljack-" Fireflight asked. "Can I ask you something?"

Wheeljack nodded, his helm flashing a deep blue.

"Why aren't you mad about me getting sparked up like everyone else?"

"Oh Flight-" Wheeljack came over to sit down on the bench by the wall, tugging Fireflight down to sit next to him. "Everybody's not mad. Disappointed, maybe, or upset, but they're not mad."

"They're /acting/ mad." Fireflight said.

Wheeljack just shook his head. "No one really knows /how/ to act, Fireflight. This sort of thing hasn't happened before. And your brothers aren't exactly helping things, you know."

Fireflight started at that. "Slingshot? But he's mad at me too."

Wheeljack smiled. "You know what he's like though- just because he's mad at you doesn't mean anyone else is allowed to be."

"I guess."

"It'll work itself out, Fireflight, don't worry. "Wheeljack said, patting him on the wing. "Now, c'mon, let's get some work done! You can help sort things, if you want. There's a bin of metal mixed with plastic and other things, over there against the wall? Put the metal in that green bin next to it, and the plastic in the black bin."

"Alright," Fireflight said easily. "How come you're not down in medical with Ratchet and First Aid getting everything ready?" Fireflight couldn't' remember a time he'd been in the Ark when it was so empty- the Aerials were usually top priority repairs as the Autobots' only real aerial fighters, and it was a rare event that they were out long enough with injuries from one fight to miss a second.

"I'll go down once Skyfire starts evacuating wounded, if they need me." Wheeljack picked up a pair of pliers and began prying a bracket loose from some plating. "I always hope they won't. If I can get this working, I'll have more raw materials to build your sparklets' protoforms with. It'd be better to use our own materials rather than sourcing materials here, if we can do it."

* * *

/Slingshot, status?/ Silverbolt sent him another ping. /Air Raid, quit playing chicken with Dirge and give him cover so he can get back in the air./

/Got blindsided by Skywarp. Fragger. I'm grounded, Bolt, my landing gear's stuck and I can't transform back./ Slingshot swore. Above him, he watched Skywarp streak past Ramjet on a trajectory that left the other jet tumbling through his jetwash.

/Skyfire's picking up wounded, he'll swing by for you last,/ Silverbolt reported after a klik of silence- Skyfire stayed on the medical channel most of the time, preferring not to get involved with air support operations.

/I'll give you what support I can from down here./ Slingshot replied, grumbling internally and switching his comm to another channel. /Bluestreak, I'm down, got a secondary perch around 14.24.72?/ It wasn't usual for Slingshot to be sniping from the ground during a battle, but he trained enough at the range to know that the sniper always had multiple sites scoped out for shooting from on any battleground.

* * *

"What are their protoforms gonna look like, Wheeljack?" Fireflight asked after a few minutes spent quietly sorting materials from the bin Wheeljack had asked him to get. "Skyfire said something to Bolt about accelerating them? Aren't they gonna be fast already? I mean, seekers're faster than us, a little."

"Sparkling frames are all pretty similar, Flight." Wheeljack said absently. "And I think Ratchet wanted to talk to you about that. Their sparks will need time to mature before they can power a full-sized frame, but we can upgrade them early into a youngling frame- maybe in a few months, instead of a vorn or two- they'd be safer if they had some armor, given ... how things are."

Fireflight stopped to think about that. "They can't do what they did to me and my brothers, and just put them into adult frames?" He didn't quite recall that, coming online for the first time. He also found that he didn't really /want/ his twins to come online in adult forms and have to fight like he did, within minutes of his awakening. "I don't want them to have to be grown before they're ready. It's not right."

Wheeljack shook his head. "No. And they're not like you and your brothers- you were sparked from Vector Sigma, and you're technically reformatted sparks who had died in the fighting on Cybertron. Your sparklings are merge-created. It's different."

"That's good, Jack." Fireflight said with a nod. He didn't understand the differences entirely, but he also didn't really need to, and focused on sorting the pieces for a few more minutes, still thinking. "Why does Ratchet want to upgrade them sooner?"

* * *

Skydive had Starscream in his sights and he fired, striking the Air Commander dead on the left wing, scoring it with laser fire. Air Raid yelled something vaguely obscene over the open comm channel and joined his brother in the fight, firing a wild barrage of shots that Starscream only just barely was able to dodge, whirling in the air like a flying dervish.

Starscream shrieked in outrage and dove sharply, where a peppering of laserfire from Bonecrusher and Scrapper drove Skydive upwards again. /Are you fools almost done?/

/We'll be done when we're done!/ Scrapper grouched. /Keep the slagging Autobots off us!/

"Shut up and assemble the device!" Megatron did not bother with the comm.

/We are, Lord Megatron./ Hook said, giving Bonecrusher a quelling glare. The Constructicons worked a bit faster on the machine, Bonecrusher glancing upward and out every so often to gauge the enemy forces. Starscream was slowly being brought lower to the ground by Skydive and Air Raid.

Starscream snapped over the comm, /Work faster! That's an order!/

The Constructicons didn't even dignify that with a response, continuing the same pace they'd already been working at. After all, it wasn't like Starscream could stop what he was doing to reprimand them more formally.

* * *

Wheeljack shook his helm. "It's just safer, Fireflight. Megatron might see it as an Autobot advantage, that we were reproducing our own new army, and try to take care of them before they were strong enough to fight back- or steal them to make them into his own fighters- especially since he probably knows that they're Starscream's by now."

Fireflight just stared. "That's...but they're just little! Sparklings!"

"And more fliers for the Autobot cause, in his mind." Wheeljack reminded Flight. "That's why we're gonna work very hard to keep your little ones safe."

"He's going to want them more because they're seekerlings, isn't he?" Fireflight said quietly.

Wheeljack hesitated. "I don't want to lie to you, Fireflight. Probably so. But we'll keep them safe. We'll do everything we can."

* * *

"Protectobots, form Defensor!" Hot Spot's voice rang out above the chaos, and the gargantuan form of the combiner advanced on the pile of parts the Constructicons were working on.

"Slag." Hook swore, looking up at the huge form of Defensor heading their way. He forcibly jerked Scrapper's head up, and his optics widened. "Slag is right." Scrapper counted bodies; yes, everyone present and accounted for. The project was just going to have to wait; Defensor would tear them apart if they /didn't/ combine.

"Constructicons. With me! Merge into Devastator!" Scrapper called in a much stronger voice than normal. They all came together seamlessly, and Devastator's head turned slightly, spotting Defensor coming his way.

* * *

Starscream cursed loudly, seeing the combiners go at it. Luckily, Superion wouldn't be showing up, as the little shareware was nowhere to be found and only three Aerialbots appeared to still be airbourne.

Silverbolt and Air Raid were quickly approaching, having either driven off or possibly slagged the conehead trine sufficiently that they could aid their brothers in fighting Starscream.

Starscream himself felt a small amount of superior pride; it took three Aerialbots to fight just him. He dove, stooping closely under Devastator's massive arm as the combiner drew back to throw a punch at the Autobot gestalt and forcing the Aerialbots to stop firing momentarily or risk hitting the Autobot gestalt.

Defensor's target quickly became evident- it wasn't the other combiner at all but the parts of the Constructicons' machine scattered on the ground, something exploding in a shower of sparks as the combiner's large white foot comes down on it.

The battle became pointless at that moment; Megatron cursed loudly, calling the retreat. As Devastator fell back into his component parts, Megatron grabbed Scrapper and shook him rather like a rag doll.

"This defeat is on /your/ head." he snarled.

* * *

The medbay was quiet, and Jazz watched with the slightly dazed curiosity of the well-drugged as Ratchet carefully removed pieces of shrapnel from his thoracic plating. It had been, as such things went, a fairly good battle, with no major injuries- strained servos, pulled tension cables, and a good solid dent or two- but nothing serious enough to have even prevented someone from driving themselves back home.

"Ratch, I think ya forgot one, it's right here..." Jazz said, tapping at his plating. Ratchet swatted at Jazz's hand so that he could look at the area unimpeded, and sure enough, there was a sliver stuck right there. Ratchet nodded and pulled it out with a pair of thin pliers, feeling more than a little tired out.

Fireflight slipped through the doorway, peeking in to see if anyone had gotten hurt in the fight. He saw Ratchet working on Jazz, the only patient in medbay. Not even First Aid was there. He felt his spirits lift, a little- a battle where no one had been seriously injured was a good one.

He stood back, watching Ratchet quietly.

"You're free until first shift tomorrow, Fireflight. I have too much slag to do." Ratchet said, spotting Flight reflected in the mirror he was using to check Jazz's internals for more pieces of shrapnel.

"Okay. I was just wondering if you knew where everyone- my brothers, I mean- went?" Fireflight asked, hovering in the doorway. He had /no/ desire to spend any more time locked in the isolation room than necessary, especially after the last few days.

"Prime sent 'em out on an extra patrol in case the Cons decided to try anything, Flight; Slingshot's helping Blue with site cleanup. Sorry 'bout that." Jazz said smoothly. "You want some company, I bet we can scramble up a cardgame or something in the rec room."

Fireflight shook his head. "I was just up there and no one was there, that's why I came down here instead. I'll go see if Skyfire's doing anything. Or something."

"That's a good idea." Ratchet said, wanting Fireflight out from underfoot. Skyfire was safe enough.

"Hey, Flight. Wait up. I'll go with ya. I need to have a word with Skyfire m'self." Fireflight gave Jazz an odd look, but he nodded and stood against the wall. "We're about done, right, Ratch?" Jazz asked.

"Yes, but do try to keep out of the way of fragment grenades from now on. I have better things to do than keep you from looking like a cheese grater." Ratchet said, scowling. "Go on, get out of my medbay."

Fireflight giggled. It wouldn't have been funny if Jazz had been really hurt, but since he was okay, Fireflight wasn't too worried. "Alright," He smiled at Jazz, and waited for the saboteur to catch up with him before leaving the medbay.

* * *

"Slag that hurts!" Thundercracker groused as Scrapper inadvertantly mashed his aileron in the process of trying to remove a piece of wing plating. "Look, just stop the fragging leak and I'll wait till Hook's back up!"

"If you flyers had just kept the slagging Autobots off us, Hook wouldn't have gotten hurt!" Mixmaster, adjusting a painkiller drip on his rather-mangled gestalt-mate, snarled at him.

"Not our fault that you all got your aft handed to you by a baby combiner team." Skywarp snickered.

"You! Why are you still in here?" Scrapper flipped a piece of Thundercracker's wing plating at him.  
"Was waiting on TC here." Skywarp said insolently. "Don't trust you not to frag it up, since you're not a real medic and all." Scrapper glared at Skywarp, who just stared back, not giving a damn.

"Tell him about your fuel glitch." Thundercracker virtually ordered, and Mixmaster perked up a little. "What glitch?"

"Nothing!" Skywarp said, maybe a little too quickly. "It's fixed itself. Promise. Don't need you; I think I just needed a good fight to set me to rights!" He looked at Thundercracker, hoping his trinemate would believe him.

TC really didn't care one way or another as long as Skywarp stopped his fragging disgusting purging, so he just nodded. "Fine. Whatever."

"Fuel glitches can be interes- serious! I meant serious!" Mixmaster said. "You better let me scan you. And take a sample, in case it's somehting use- er, contagious!"

"It's not! I'm fine! Ask Starscream!" Skywarp yelped, scooting towards the door.

"Are you?" Starscream swept in to the medbay with impeccable timing.

/Get me out of here and I'll do whatever you want, Screamer!/ Skywarp commed, only slightly frantically. Only a few more days- the Aerial would surely get back to him before that, and once he said yes, surely Ratchet could be prevailed on to take care of the symptoms, soft-sparked, sparkling-lovers that the Autobots were.

/...Anything?/ Starscream was...intrigued by this. /I'll hold you to that, Skywarp. And stop calling me that./ "He's fine." Starscream snapped with characteristic irritability. What was Skywarp up to?  
Starscream didn't really know why Skywarp had asked him to cover for him, but with that sort of promise, it had to be something major. The lie he'd told to Mixmaster wasn't, it was just words to shut the moron up.

Thundercracker sighed deeply, glaring at Scrapper. "Think we can get my wing fixed sometime this orn, or are you on vacation?"

Mixmaster frowned, but Starscream both outranked /and/ outstubborned him...and they both knew it. His shoulders slumped a little; he had been intrigued by the idea of getting ahold of Skywarp. Oh, well. There was always next time.

"If you'll sit the frag still, it'll go faster." Scrapper pointed out. "You two, get out before Hook gets back."

Starscream flickered his optics in annoyance, but he wanted to know what Skywarp was hiding. He dragged the teleporter out of the bay and to their quarters, holding a finger up to silence Skywarp when he tried to start explaining in the hallway.

* * *

"How ya doin' since Ratch let you out, Flighty?" Jazz asked as they headed through the Ark towards Skyfire's lab.

Flight shrugged. "Not too bad. I wish I could recharge with my brothers, but they keep hooking me up to this /thing/, and Ratchet stuck this monitor on me till the sparkles are born stead of taking it on and off all the time." He tapped his chestplates.

"Well, it's safer for 'em, right? So that Ratch can watch ya, and be sure you're getting all the energy you need?" His field slowly brushed against Fireflight's, and Fireflight looked up, shocked for a split second. Jazz knew about /that/?

"Well, um yes, Jazz...Ratchet told me I needed to merge outside the gestalt, because our energy's too similar." he said matter-of-factly, appraising the black and white mech. An officer, yes, but...did that really matter?

Jazz's optic ridges arched, and he put up a single hand. "Flighty, I like you and all, but..." He shrugged. "I know you need energy and closeness, but I'm not the mech to go to for that. There's reasons, and it has t'do with security clearance and a world of other things that have nothin' to do with liking or not liking."

Fireflight looked almost hurt for a moment, and then he actually considered it. Jazz was right. He was an officer, and not even a flyer besides, and he /did/ things that were just /weird/ sometimes. Maybe it wasn't a good idea...

"You /do/ know you don't have to merge and 'face, right? That you can do it another way?" Jazz said, completely serious. "Look, let's go talk to Skyfire. You're comfortable with him, aren't you?"

Fireflight nodded; he /hadn't/ known that, and was actually wondering exactly how one would do such a thing.

* * *

"Spill it, Skywarp." Starscream stared at his trinemate, who stood against the wall in their quarters. He looked nervous, which was really odd; Skywarp usually feared nothing, especially not Starscream.

"Well, you see, I have a problem." Skywarp explained. "A little one. A little one that'll become a big one."

"Stop being so cryptic and just come /out/ with it!" starscream snapped, in no mood for Skywarp's particular brand of bullslag today.

"'M sparked up, Screamer." Skywarp shrugged, and a sheepish little grin tweaked his lips.

"Again?" Starscream nearly shrieked. Skywarp pointedly covered the audial nearer Starscream. "What the slag do you want /me/ to do about this? You can't keep it, Warp. He'll KILL you, and I do mean that literally."

"I'm taking care of it!" Skywarp replied sharply. "It won't be an issue much longer. But I wanna take care of it on my own."

Starscream eyed him suspiciously.

"Please, Sc- Star? Look, if I don't tell you, you won't have to deny knowing if it blows up in my face, right?"

* * *

Fireflight followed Jazz, frowning slightly.

"Somethin' wrong, Flighty? Jazz asked.

"No, no. A little itchy, but that's normal. Just thinking of how soon it's going to be, and then they'll be here."

"Heard carryin' does all sorts of fritzy things to your systems. Never been much interested, myself." Jazz shrugged. "Be nice to have bitlets around again, though."

"You're not mad? About me fragging Starscream?" Fireflight asked.

Jazz shook his head. "Nah. Ain't gonna say I'm not a little /surprised/, cuz I really never pegged you for the type that goes for... well, anything. Screamer doesn't have much goin' for him that I've thought'd interest you."

Fireflight tilted his head. He'd never really thought about it like that- to him, the appeal was obvious, and had nothing to do with faction- or admittdly beautiful form and faceplates. "Because of how he can fly. No one else flies like he does.

Jazz nodded slowly. "I s'pose that's true enough; nobody outflew him at the last Games they held in Vos, 'fore it got blown to pieces. Only ones who came close are still flyin' with him."

"His trine, right?" Fireflight had been educated on such things by Skyfire, who wanted to make sure that the Autobot fliers knew of the history of Cybertron's various flight-capable societies and cultures.

"Yup." Jazz said, tapping the elevator control. "They wasn't trined, then...that was a very long time ago, before this war ever really started." His visor flashed a little, a slightly darker blue, and Fireflight tilted his head, hoping this wasn't upsetting the mech. He liked Jazz, and didn't want to upset the other mech.

"Yeah. Maybe someday the war'll be over and we can watch 'em fly without shooting at 'em." Fireflight smiled at Jazz.

"Heh." Jazz grinned. "You ever get tired of all us old mechs reminiscing at you guys?" He laughed as Fireflight shook his head, wide-opticked.

* * *

Starscream noted Skywarp's slip on his name and nodded inwardly; Skywarp almost /never/ called him Star anymore unless he wanted something, and this was no exception.

"I /don't/ want to know the details, Skywarp. Don't want to know when, don't want to know where, and I /really don't want to know who with, though I could probably guess that, given enough time. Then again, maybe not; you get around, don't you, Skywarp?" He didn't wait for an answer to the rather rude question. "You take care if it, and I'll hold my silence...but you owe me. You owe me big. And I think I might know how you can repay me. I need time to get the rest of my plan together. Until then, I'll help you."

Skywarp sighed in relief. "Alright. Just keep TC and the fragging Constructicons off my aft for a few orns, that's all I need." Skywarp promised with a relieved sigh. "What kinda plan are you workin' on, anyway?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. Yet." Starscream said.

* * *

Jazz and Fireflight arrived at the doors to Skyfire's quarters in the hangar, and they pinged the door, hoping that he was in. Skyfire answered immediately, though, and he didn't sound put out at all to have Jazz and Fireflight there even at this late hour.

Skyfire led the two in, offering refreshments before noticing that Jazz had already unsubspaced a cube of his own. They all took a seat in the oversized chairs that Grapple had made for the shuttle soon after he had joined the Autobots.

"What brings the two of you here?" he said softly, curious. He idly clicked off the datapad he had been perusing and turned his full attention onto Fireflight; he was still rather concerned about the young flier, and wanted to make sure there was nothing going on that he should worry about.

Fireflight twitched his shoulder self-consciously as Jazz smiled. "Well, Flighty here needs some help, an' I think you can be the one to do it."

Skyfire froze. "Surely you don't think- I am most certainly not going to- /Jazz/!"

Fireflight giggled. "It's okay, Skyfire- he says there's a way to do it without 'facing? I know you and Silverbolt..."

"Silverbolt and I /what/?" Skyfire's voice could have frozen oxygen.

"He likes you." Fireflight said.

"Fireflight...of course he does, he's my friend..." Skyfire looked shocked, to say the least. Shocked and more than a little embarrassed. Jazz's visor flared a brilliant blue, and only he knew that he was laughing his aft off at the shuttleformer's reaction; it was terribly, terribly obvious to most mechs how Silverbolt felt, but Skyfire was as oblivious as stone and twice as dense when it came to these sorts of thngs.

"Not like thaaa-at." the Ops mech grinned, standing up to bow out of the room. "I'm gonna leave you two to talk and stuff; I got somewhere to be. Have fun, Flight."

The salacious wink was in Jazz's voice, and Skyfire groaned aloud. "Glitch." he muttered softly.

Fireflight squirmed a little awkwardly in his seat when Jazz left him alone with Skyfire; it wasn't /real/ awkwardness, just that Jazz had sort of put the idea into his head, and it sounded like a good idea, to merge with someone...and he didn't think Skyfire would do it. "So do you know how? To merge without facing?" Fireflight asked, bluntly, scooting his chair closer to Skyfire's.

Skyfire looked down at the younger flyer. Fireflight's optics were wide and guileless but there was a hint of a grin lurking around his mouth. Skyfire prayed for patience before replying. "I do, Fireflight, but I don't know if it's ... appropriate."

Fireflight huffed. "Well, Jazz probably thought it was, or he wouldn't have suggested it!"

"Jazz thinks /many/ things are appropriate, many of which /aren't/." Skyfire tried to explain.

"But Skyfire." Fireflight tried, and succeeded (mostly) at keeping the whine out of his voice. "I need your help, and it's not like I'm asking you to 'face me, I know it's not me you wanna 'face as it is! Just for you to...I don't know. Share with me?"

Skyfire hesitated.

"Look - you're not MAKING me do anything." Fireflight said. "And it's for my sparklets. Maybe - maybe if we merged, it'll be enough that I can go recharge with my brothers and not hooked up to that stupid machine again?"

It would have taken a much tougher mech than Skyfire to have refused /that/ expression. Shaking his head, he sighed. "Alright. But merging only. And you tell Silverbolt first thing when you see him so he doesn't find out from someone else."

Fireflight nodded eagerly. He really was kind of curious as to how one went about merging without actually fragging. He'd never done it, and had never seen his brothers do it either.

Skyfire shifted his position on the larger seat he was using, and motioned for Fireflight to join him. Flight scooted eagerly next to him, and was surprised when Skyfire easily lifted him onto his lap.

"Hard to reach you from over there, Fireflight." Skyfire said seriously. "Now, you need to relax. I'm not going to do anything...odd, I promise."

Fireflight believed that, and he reclined slightly in Skyfire's lap, offlining his optics expectantly. He could feel the warm comfort of the shuttle under him, and it felt... Nice. Not /hot/, because he wasn't thinking that way right now...not really, anyway, but he reminded Flight a lot of Silverbolt.

Skyfire began rubbing Fireflight's shoulders, using gentle pressure, taking his time to try and relax the younger flier. A thought had occurred to him- if he actually merged with Flight, he'd be able to see what had happened, and then he would finally know the truth of what had happened at the airport that night.  
"You're right, you know, Flight- it's just another kind of sharing." Skyfire said. Fireflight hummed happily and cuddled up against him, petting his chestplates. Skyfire caught his hand. "It's not about /that/ kind of pleasure, okay? Let me teach you."

Fireflight made a little face but nodded. "Okay." Fireflight nodded eagerly. He really was kind of curious as to how one went about merging without actually fragging. He'd never done it, and had never seen his brothers do it either.

With no small amount of effort, he made himself sit still and let Skyfire show him. The larger mech's touch was soft, but it didn't seek out /those/ places, he never brisshed along the sensitive spots. No, it was like being in a pile with his brothers after a long fight, when everyone was far too exhausted to do anything but recharge. He sighed happily, relaxing into Skyfire's embrace.

Skyfire nodded, able to read Fireflight's field from here. He could almost, almost sense the whirling energy he held within him, too, but it was like a tickle on the edges of his awareness, so he ignored it for now, rubbing Fireflight's wings in just the right pattern to put him half into recharge instead of fully into overdrive.

Fireflight's optics dimmed, and his helm tipped to lean against Skyfire's chest, very nearly purring.

"Don't go into recharge on me, Fireflight." Skyfire said with a chuckle.

"Feels nice. Comfortable." Fireflight sat up and smiled up at him. "So are we gonna merge? "

"Patience, Fireflight." Skyfire said, preparing to initiate just that. "Just lay back and let it happen."

"Funny, that's sort of what Starscream said too..." Fireflight said drowsily, and Skyfire stiffened imperceptibly. He executed the commands to unlock his chestplates, and stroked gently at Fireflight's. "Open for me, Flight, okay?"

Fireflight just nodded, and he unlocked himself almost automatically; part of him wondered wryly if his chest was getting loose from all the opening and closing he was doing recently. Brilliant blue flared, the swirl at peace instead of frenetic.

Skyfire smiled, his optics slitted in concentration. He held Fireflight close to him, the smaller jet pressed against his chest now. "Just feel, Flight. Nothing more, nothing less. I will guide you."

"Mmmkay, 'Fire." he said, almost hypnotized by the azure light.

Skyfire adjusted his hold on Fireflight at the same time as he offlined his optics, focusing on the feel of his own spark where the edge of its energy field was twining and pressing against Fireflight's. "Can you feel that?" He asked.

"Uh huh." Fireflight said. "Feels nice and warm."

"I'm going to send a little bit of a pulse at you - you may see a memory of mine, but don't be upset if you don't. Then you can try sending one back." Skyfire said, stroking down Fireflight's fuselage almost absently.

"Okay." This was different, and sounded sort of fun, Fireflight thought, just as the pulse washed over him. It wasn't strong, it didn't cause him to see stars...other than the ones in the faint memory, a beautiful, wide vista of violet, black, and blue. Deep space, seen from the source. Fireflight had seen pictures, but he hadn't gone into space himself, and certainly wasn't built for the kind of deep space travel that Skyfire was. He gasped at the beauty, and almost forgot to send something back in return.

Unused to this, his wave was sharper, and tinged with something recent- the sky, seen from the medbay's window, inaccessible to him. The memory was sad, because Fireflight loved the sky, and missed being able to go out whenever he wanted to go.

"Like that, but easy- just let it flow with your energy-" Skyfire said, sending another memory of spaceflight, the joy of seeing a nebula that had never been seen by Cybertronian optics before- tinged with a hint of sadness of his own. He felt Fireflight's spark curl around the memory, washing over it with curiosity before offering one of his own, flying in the mist of breaking waves bare kix off the Pacific ocean and watching whales breach below him.

The memories did have something in common- the same mech was present for both. Yet they were two very /different/ mechs at the same time.

Fireflight could sense this, and decided to show Skyfire something small, since maybe he, above all others, might understand just a little...Starscream, in the sky. The best flier. Above all others, acting as if he were master of the wind and it would bow to him, rather than the other way around. That attraction that had driven him to agree, even as overcharged as he was.

And Skyfire saw this and some part of him agreed, though he carefully hid it. He also hid the judgement, the thoughts that Fireflight had somehow been taken advantage of, and showed him a bit more of his previous life- the landscape of an alien world, the gravity so light that even Skyfire could perform tricks in the air that would rival Seekers on Cybertron. Fireflight laughed at that, and sent a warm pulse carried with an image of Silverbolt and Air Raid gaining altitude, and Bolt holding back so that Raid could stay next to him.

It was very warm, and nice. Fireflight felt safe here. Safe and wanted, but not the kind of want he was used to...but he thought that maybe this kind was okay too. "Is this all there is?" He thought silently, and felt more than heard Skyfire chuckle.

"No, but slow down, enjoy it." Skyfire wrapped his field around Fireflight. Fireflight thought that it felt a bit like Spike and Carly had described covering themselves up with warm fuzzy blankets - soft and comforting. Skyfire must've caught that thought, because he laughed again, shifting Fireflight against him. "We can go deeper, if you're ready."

Fireflight nodded, opening his optics to look up at the shuttleformer, venting deeply as he felt energy crackling between them. It wasn't charge like an overload, but it still felt familiar - a little bit like the air around Silverbolt when his battery was running at full charge, just before he zapped something- but better- softer.

Skyfire took gentle control of the merge, and allowed the Aerial to see more of him- his life before the ice, though he very carefully shielded the feeling of being buried alive from the Phantom; those he had cared for (and still did, no matter how much he said otherwise), and a carefully maintained image of Fireflight's own brother, standing in such a way that the moonlight made his plating shine like molten silver, as his name suggested.

Fireflight felt joy bubble within him at this, and he sent a pulse/thought/feeling that rang with, /You /do/ like him, a lot!/ Fireflight shared more images of his brother, as his gestaltmates were always one of his favorite subjects- Silverbolt, walking through the corridors, Skydive performing aerial tricks that made the Seekers jealous, and Slingshot's caring that spiraled through the gestalt bond where no one outside could see it.

/Not a word, Flight./ Skyfire though, his embarrassment very visible here. /What comes, comes./ He tried to distract the jet with a very vivid image of Starscream, on Cybertron, and Fireflight's spark reacted strongly...but it wasn't negative, at least. His feelings were an odd respect, the want that continually ran through him, and slight amazement from the emotion that he manged to pick up here.../I wanted it,Sky. He didn't force me./ he said simply, and his spark agreed.

Skyfire turned that thought over in his meta, letting the feel of it settle as Fireflight watched, still intertwined with him. Not that it was a bad thing- but that something- somehow, some part of the Starscream he'd known was still present in the seeker.

/He's not good, Skyfire. I know that. But Prime says people can change./ Fireflight sent, cuddling closer mentally and physically both, wrapping his arms around Skyfire and hugging him.

/They can. He did. But...I believe you, and him now./ Skyfire did, now. He could see it. Fireflight didn't hide the memory from him at all. Sure, he'd been overcharged. Sure, he'd been alone. But nothing had been forced, nothing has been coerced. Things had happened, sure, but...Fireflight didn't regret it, and it wasn't Skyfire's place to press his own regrets upon Fireflight for a past the younger mech had nothing to do with.

He held Flight closer and showed him joy, the only time he had seen newsparks color up their frames. The delighted wonder of a sparkling onlining for the first time to see its creator, the little arms waving, reaching out.

Fireflight laughed, and sent a query, how was he supposed to hold two at once? Skyfire's presence reassured him, the pules growing faster now, showing Flight that he was able, that he was capable of doing whatever he needed to do to be what his young ones would need.

The images and memories flowed faster between them now - Fireflight's first flight over Cybertron, the first time they formed Superion; Skyfire's graduation from the science academy and promotion to the exploration bureau; their respective first sights of earth; memories of sensation more than specific incidences- the feeling of wind under one's wings, the hot burn of reentering the atmosphere, the slide of fingers dancing over sensitive wing plating, the thrill of a steep climb on the verge of stalling, twining and spiraling closer and closer together.

"Skyfire, that's...I feel..." Fireflight's vocalizer reset, this was getting close to feeling sort of like THAT kind of overload, but Skyfire reined Fireflight in.

"Ride it out, slowly..." he said softly, the echoes of fingertips and alien suns and solar winds caressing his plating even here in this room. His spark flared, almost overwhelming Fireflight with its intensity, but he held firm, tucking the Aerialbot's helm into the crook of his shoulder and neck and feeding him healing, needed energy with every spiral of his overload.

Fireflight shuddered, fingers clutching at Skyfire's plating, spark flaring. Skyfire offlined his own optics, leaning over to lean his helm against the Phantom, hands stroking along the long white wings and letting go of /some/ of his control.

"Aaah! Skyfire!" Fireflight could say literally nothing else, riding the wave of pleasure that was different from every other time he had done this. It was in his spark, and stroking along his wings; in his meta, feeling close and warm and safe and wanted. It was almost better in some ways, and he sent a wave of gratitude to Skyfire for showing him this. He tried to reach for Skyfire's wings to reciprocate, but the shuttleformer held him firm, giving instead of taking, his own pleasure evident in the ability to do this for Fireflight.

"Easy, easy." he whispered, his body shuddering slightly. He allowed a flash to pass from his thoughts to Fireflight's- a wish that one day, he could share this with his brother...and Fireflight responded with his assent, the knowledge that he had of Silverbolt's own desires.

"Don't stop-" he choked out. Skyfire didn't stop, he ran his fingers across Flight's wing edges in /just/ the right way, and Fireflight spiraled over the edge, his spark energy swallowed by Skyfire's own overload, and he could feel the joy from within, the satiation granted by this gift.

Energy skirled between them, washing back and forth and only gradually slowing. Fireflight's fans powered down, although he didn't move from where he was slumped comfortably against Skyfire's plating.

"Thank you, Skyfire." He murmured.

Skyfire's had paused, his own systems cooling, but when Fireflight spoke, he petted the young jet's wings again. "You're welcome, Fireflight."

"Don't wanna move." Fireflight said, feeling very sated, very comfortable, and very lazy.

Skyfire sighed, smiling. "It's okay, I'll take you back. Your brothers will be home soon." He scooped the Aerialbot up and carried him to their quarters, ignoring the odd looks from the other mechs on the way.

Flight grinned happily and belatedly remembered to ping Ratchet. /Do I gotta come back?/

After a few moments, Ratchet responded. /Not right now. Your readings are excellent. Go spend some time with your gestalt and leave me alone for a few joor. Report at shift change./ His tone was gruff. Fireflight didn't question it; he was too sated to even try. He was in recharge before Skyfire laid him down in the midst of the huge pillows on the floor of the hangar they all shared.

He was vaguely aware of hearing someone coming in some undetermined time later, and voices carefully low as warm bodies cuddled up on either side of him, stroking his wings fondly. Fireflight woke up enough to sit up, leaning against Skyfire's side to blink sleepily at Silverbolt.

"When did you get back?" He asked. The Concorde was sitting a few feet away on a chair, a datapad in his lap and two cubes of energon - one the odd color of Fireflight's supplemented blend- sitting on the arm of the chair.

Silverbolt looked up and smiled at him. "About a joor ago. I was just finishing my report before I recharged with the rest of you." Air Raid and Skydive had tucked themselves in on either side of Fireflight, but Slingshot was still absent. "Skyfire said you came to see him before we got back. I don't think he was planning to recharge but he didn't want to get up and disturb any of you."

Fireflight moved slowly and reached for his cube, drinking deep- he needed the energy, and he smiled in satisfaction at not gagging at the taste. He /was/ getting used to it. "Where's Slingshot?" He looked voer at Skyfire a little ruefully. "I didn't even know he laid down there. I...um, he helped me out."

Silverbolt's optics cycled so widely they looked like they were about to fall out. "/Flight/, you /didn't/!"

"Not /that/ way, Bolt! Sheesh!" Fireflight stuck out his glossa. "Did you know you can merge and not 'face?"

"No, I didn't." Silverbolt said warily. "And where did you learn /that/ from?"

"Oh, him. Well, and Jazz" Flight pointed at Skyfire. "Was pretty nice, and guess what? He really, really, really li-"

Silverbolt held up his hands. "I don't want to hear it. Do not want. Slingshot's still in the medbay, Ratchet's gonna replace his t-cog and some bent struts in the morning, but he wasn't critical so it got put on the schedule for tomorrow morning. Fireflight climbed to his feet carefully so as not to step on Skyfire's wing or disturb Skydive and Air Raid.

"I gotta report back, it's almost shift change." He sighed. "Only another orn and a half, right?"

Silverbolt smiled at him. "We'll all be glad when you don't have to report any more."


End file.
